Is The Snoo Worth It? A Real Mommy Review

It took me about a week after bringing Bianca home to put her in the Snoo. Newborns are sleepy little peanuts, and she liked to fall asleep on me, which I relished. I didn’t want to lose that time with her by putting her in a pricey contraptions! No way, no how.

We’d been hearing about the Snoo for months before buying it. Anyone who has met my husband knows he is VERY into tech, so it wasn’t hard to sell him on considering it. We had the Halo bassinet with ODP and barely used it/hated it/ended up throwing laundry in it, so we knew we’d need something else for the next babe. The Snoo was promising more + better sleep earlier, and we wanted a piece of dat.

Then we started doing what any sane and somewhat budget-conscious couple would do: we started looking for used Snoos and sales. Used Snoos FLEW off sites like Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp. We did the math on renting one and figured if you order it the month of your due date and use for the recommended six months, you actually end up paying more than if you’d waited to buy it on sale and then re-sold on the hot re-sale market. So, buying new it was. We got ours on World Sleep Day (who knew that was a thing???) for about 30% off. We set the delivery date to the end of April and we waited.

Once the thing arrived and we set it up, we were pretty pleased. It is very slick looking and doesn’t take up a TON of bedroom real estate. The bags and clips were easy to figure out, but the one problem was the WiFi. My husband would be able to explain this better, but the way I understand it is we have a fancy, fast WiFi system in our house. The Snoo (and our former Ring doorbell) needed a little bit of a less smart WiFi network. I don’t know if that means slower or less powerful or what—I’ll let my husband explain it offline because it is clearly over my head—but he essentially ended up having to create a new network just for our “smart” contraptions. He named it Pretty Fly for a WiFi and he is very proud of that. Even I don’t know the password. The irony of that whole thing, though, is the Snoo is supposed to be a smart device but it doesn’t play well with super-smart WiFi systems—meaning, if you are a couple who loves smart tech, your head might explode a little bit wondering how the thing says it’s as techy as it does.

Once we got the Snoo it’s own WiFi and brought our new baby home, Raz encouraged me to start putting her in it for at least one nap a day. Here’s the thing: the sacks made me a little sad at first. They look like baby straight jackets. They are baby straight jackets. But I have to remind myself that babies like being wrapped like little burritos and after a week or so of putzing around and avoiding it, I decided to try to get our money’s worth out of the Snoo. It took a few days for Bianca to get used to it, but after she did, she looooved napping in it. We got small glimpses of our pre-baby relationship back when Baby B and ODP had sleep overlaps. We’d sit on the deck right outside the door and sip wine and think having a newborn really isn’t as bad as we remember it.

It’s been five months now and Baby B has slept in the Snoo almost every night since the end of May. She gets up maybe once in the night and often sleeps from 7ish-4/5ish. Here’s her log from a few nights ago:

A very good night for all of us!

So, is the Snoo worth it? Every baby is different and it’s hard to know beforehand if you’ll have a decent sleeper. But, just like with crystal therapy and acupuncture, my philosophy was: it definitely couldn’t hurt. We plan to resell it once Bianca’s in her crib full time (she naps there now, but needs to consistently sleep through the night before I’ll put her in her room overnight—momma isn’t walking downstairs for 3 a.m. feeds). At the end of the day, we’ll be at a loss of about $300 for better infant sleep spread over the first six months, so it’s absolutely been worth it to me.

Bidding starts now. Any takers?