The Snoo Bassinet Review You Need

One of my must-haves, most-used and most-valued baby items was—by far—the Snoo bassinet. I did not have the Snoo for my first son, who was born in 2018, and after many sleepless nights for the first six months of his life—I was desperate for any type of sleep assistance with baby number two. My husband was not thrilled with my persistence that we get this robotic bassinet (because the price tag is steep). However, it was about five weeks into my son, Georgie’s, short life when my husband turned to me and said, “you were right, this was worth every penny”. So, if it is in your budget, or you can make it work in your budget, it was a lifesaving baby item that we loved so much we have lent it to several friends in need of a full night’s sleep.

If you are a new parent, a second time parent, or whatever number child parent—you are probably experiencing a healthy amount of skepticism. Which is totally normal. I was a skeptic when I first heard of the Snoo when I was pregnant in 2018 with my first son. I remember thinking, “why would anyone spend $1600 on a bassinet?” and the answer is desperation. There is no tired like the tired you feel after being up all night with a baby and having to work/take care of your family the next day.

The Snoo offers an aesthetically appealing and sleek bassinet design, that is like any other ordinary bassinet that stays in your room for the first six months. It has its own sound system that plays white noise, wifi, and noise sensors that react to your babies cries to rock your baby at different intensities. The bassinet is a collaboration with Dr. Harvey Karp (the man famous (to some parents who have researched sleep techniques for babies) for the “5 S’s” of calming your baby) and Yves Behar, a renowned industrial designer whose has some a-list clients like Sodastream, Dyson, etc.

Happiest baby is the company that manufactures the Snoo bassinet, and it is coined as “the safest baby bed ever made”. Their swaddle system is top notch and has Snoo ‘wings’ that clip the swaddle into the sides of the bassinet so the baby cannot roll over. The gentle rocking motion, coupled with white noise continues all night, unless your baby gets upset.

If your baby gets upset, the Snoo recognizes the crying (or sometimes leg raising) and attempts to calm your baby with several levels of higher intensity rocking and white noise. The hope is that your baby goes back to sleep without you having to get out of bed. Obviously, sometimes your will need to comfort, feed, or change the baby.

Due to this being a large purchase, big-ticket item, lightyears more expensive than an alternative, I have several critiques and would have appreciated the information I gathered before purchasing. Our, OMG moments—OMG being, wow we never would’ve been able to do this without it—are what makes it worth every penny. How do we know if it truly worked or not? Well, we have an older son we didn’t use the Snoo with and their sleep patterns at the same ages were drastically different.

Our OMG moments were:

*Being able to spend time together one on one at nighttime

*Georige sleeping through the night from 5 weeks old

*His current sleep habits as a, now, 10-month-old

         From the beginning, having him in the Snoo gave us several hours in the evening that we were able to spend together to connect after our second bundle of joy was brought into the world. And slowly, but not that slowly, he started sleeping through the night. At around 5 weeks, he was sleeping for 6-8 hour stretches and it got longer and longer until he was consistently sleeping 12 hours a night around 5 months old.

         The fact that he was able to sleep through the night starting at 6 weeks old was a game changer. Our first son, Hudson, woke up every three hours consistently until he was 5.5 months old, and we desperately tried the CIO method, which was not my favorite. The white noise was a pleasant sound that didn’t disrupt our sleeping and was somewhat soothing to us as well (another positive).  

         One thing I love about the Snoo is that I think it has forever impacted his sleep patterns, in a positive way. Currently, Georgie, is almost 10 months old and is still sleeping through the night. We cold turkey transitioned him to his crib and after 2 nights he went back to sleeping 12 hours per night. One thing I love about the Snoo is that I think it has forever impacted his sleep patterns, in a positive way.

         You can use it without it being connected to wifi or the app on your phone. This was a positive for us because when we traveled south to my parents’ house a few times we didn’t always connect it to wifi and that was helpful. You can simply push the button on the front to turn it on or off and you hold it down for a couple of seconds to move it up a level. The most beneficial part of the app is to track sleep patterns and see when they wake or when the Snoo has to calm the baby. On the app you can also restrict the app and keep it from going to the highest level of movement or sound so it is has some customizable capabilities that are very helpful.

         A couple of critiques I have are:

         *Connectivity

         *Customer Service

         For this being a $1600 I was hoping the connection would be better and I wonder why they wouldn’t have added a Bluetooth connection versus the wifi. At our house, we have a mesh network, which is not supported by the Snoos traditional setup. We had to create a whole different wifi network just to connect it (there are several blog posts that walk you through how to do this if you too have a mesh/open network).

         Our first Snoo—yes you read that right—had internal issues that weren’t working so it was never able to connect to our network. Despite the previously mentioned connection issues. I had to spend three weeks emailing Snoo customer support before they would send us a new one. Luckily, we were able to get it replaced, after we paid a deposit, but they did help us, eventually.

         The Snoo can be jarring to watch your baby rocked in if it gets up to the highest level. Since it is a relatively newer product and isn’t mainstream due to the cost, I would have appreciated more information on how to use it other than the periodic articles sent through the app. I did find a Snoo Mamas facebook group which was the. Most helpful in giving advice, tips, and tricks.

         We traveled several times during my son’s first five months of life. The Snoo, while aesthetically pleasing and sleek looking, is heavy and bulky to carry. It is not easy to transport, even with our Ford Expedition.

         You must use the Snoo swaddles because of the wings that clip the baby into the bassinet, and you only get one swaddle in each size (small, medium, large) and one fitted sheet. The extras, and you will want extras for the middle of the night blowouts, are not cheap.

         Ultimately, is the Snoo worth it? If you have the $1600 in your budget to spend on it, then yes. If your baby seems to be more fussy than normal, then yes. If you are desperate for sleep, or if your partner needs sleep, then yes. If you ask me, YES, it is 1000% worth the investment. Yes, I said investment. You are investing in your sleep which is an investment in your overall well-being as a new mom or new parent. And that, in my book, is worth every penny.

         If you are still hung up on the cost, consider their rental program OR wait until black Friday deals. We ordered ours from Amazon on black Friday and got 20% off. Which meant before taxes we purchased it for $1276, which felt better than $1595 (thanks to inflation it is currently $1695).