This Smart Bassinet Helps You and Your Baby Sleep
Everyone warned me I’d get no sleep when I became a mom. What I wasn't prepared for: feeling so tired that I sometimes felt unsafe rocking my baby at night. Caring for a newborn is hard enough. Throw in sleep deprivation and it’s a recipe for disaster. That’s exactly why the Happiest Baby SNOO Smart Sleeper was invented.
What exactly is a SNOO?
The SNOO is a smart bassinet from Dr. Harvey Karp - who is best known for teaching millions of parents how to soothe newborns with his best-selling book, The Happiest Baby on the Block. It looks just like an ordinary bassinet, but is equipped with a microphone to detect crying, speakers to play white noise, and a motor that rocks your baby to create a soothing womb-like environment.
How does the SNOO work?
You start by swaddling your baby in one of three included SNOO Sacks (small, medium, or large) made of organic cotton and breathable mesh that the company says reduces overheating. The clip-in wings prevent risky rolling in the bassinet and keeps your newborn on his or her back all night- the best way to reduce the risk of SIDS, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Then, the magic happens: The bed rocks your baby and plays white noise to help with falling asleep and staying asleep - just like your body naturally did in the womb. If your baby starts crying, the bassinet knows to speed up the motion and increase the soothing sounds to help even the fussiest babies relax. If that's not impressive enough, Happiest Baby says the SNOO can calm most babies in under a minute.
There's also a built-in app that lets you customize your baby's settings. You can change the starting levels to be faster and louder, and the sensitivity to be more or less responsive to your baby’s cries. The app also tracks sleep so you can see the total amount your baby gets each day, the longest stretch per night, and weekly and monthly patterns like how much your baby sleeps during the day vs. night.
Needless to say, new parents are obsessed. Hundreds of reviews on the Happiest Baby website sing the bassinet's praises and countless mommy bloggers have called it a “game-changer.” I felt alarmingly sleep-deprived with my firstborn, so I was dying to know if the machine was as magical as people said when I was expecting baby #2. Six months after using the bassinet, I'll confidently join hundreds of parents in saying it’s worth the investment. Here’s why:
You and your baby will get more sleep.
The SNOO doesn’t change the fact that you’ll still wake up for midnight feedings. It does, however, prevent non-hungry wakings and it cuts down the time it takes to get your child back to sleep once feedings are done. Instead of having to get your little one back to sleep yourself, you can let the SNOO do the rocking for you. Not to mention, overtired parents sometimes fall asleep by accident, leaving their babies in dangerous situations. In fact, about 3,500 babies die each year from sleep-related incidents in the U.S. (yes, really!). Most of these occur in a parent's bed where the baby can accidentally fall out or get smothered. Happiest Baby's goal is to get more newborns into the SNOO and out of unsafe sleeping conditions.
There’s built-in sleep training.
Most parents can agree that the ultimate goal is for children to learn to fall asleep on their own, but it can be a process to get to that point - one that can, at times, require letting your baby cry. The SNOO’s technology helps soothe your baby when they wake up in the middle of the night so that they can learn to fall back asleep without your help. Thanks to the bassinet, my second daughter started sleeping for long stretches on her own and easily made the switch to a crib when she turned six months old.
The SNOO's customer service is unmatched.
With the purchase of your SNOO, you get access to customer care reps seven days a week to help you make the bassinet successful in soothing your baby. Case in point: My little “Houdini” was escaping her swaddle, and they were able to teach me a trick to keep her arms in place. She also went through a phase where the only time she was calm was in her swing and would have a meltdown any time I placed her in the bassinet. They said it was because most babies don't like being flat on their backs and suggested keeping her legs elevated in the SNOO. Both tips worked right away.
The bottom line:
I'll be the first to admit that the SNOO can’t do a better job of soothing a baby than an actual parent or caregiver, plus you’ll likely find yourself feeling tired: After all, raising a baby isn’t easy. But for me, those 1-2 hours a night that I got back by not having to stay up holding my baby after overnight feeds were what made the difference.
If you’re on the fence about the price, look at this way: The SNOO comes out to just over $6 a day if you use it for six months and the 30-day guarantee means you can return your bassinet for any reason before the month is up and get a full refund.
Considering the peace of mind (and extra “set of hands”) the SNOO offered, I encourage new parents to give it a try.
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