Is The SNOO Bassinet Worth It?! SNOO REVIEW (NOT-SPONSORED)

Is the SNOO Bassinet Worth It?! Spoiler Alert – Yes! But there are some caveats..

As a new mom, sleep deprivation becomes your worst enemy in the first few months of your baby’s life.

You get to the point where you aren’t actually sure which way is up, and you become desperate for a solution that not only gets you some sleep but which is good for your baby as well.

Every. Single. New parent goes through this. It’s a universal struggle and one we see in so many comedy shows and movies.

The scene with the new mom walking around with huge bags under her eyes, messy hair, and a stain on her shirt that’s unidentifiable.

That was me. Completely struggling for the first month of my newborns life.

I don’t even know how I found it. Maybe it was God, the universe, or maybe it was just the extremely intelligent algorithms trying to sell to me 😂

But my instagram popped an ad for the SNOO.

I was curious, intrigued…..and then slightly SHOCKED by the price!

What?! Who in their right mind would pay THAT much?!

So I kept scrolling. Out of sight. Out of mind. Expect it wasn’t out of mind.

The SNOO promises a good nights sleep and that’s what i was absolutely desperate for.

After a couple more days of restless nights… I started reading more about the SNOO.

After one particular bad night where I fell asleep on the toilet (you know this has happened to you! And if it hasn’t, don’t tell me, I like to pretend it’s common!) I took the plunge and ordered the SNOO.

So now you’re wondering…. What is the SNOO? And is it worth the price tag?!

SNOO Review (Not Sponsored + Not Gifted)

The SNOO is a smart bassinet, which was invented to help parents get more sleep by teaching babies to self-soothe.

When your baby wakes up, the smart bassinet will gently soothe them back to sleep, so you get to sleep in a little more as well.

If the SNOO (and more sleep) sounds like something you need, keep reading to find out more, and why it is the bassinet that I swear every family needs!

*Before we get into it – I want to answer a question I’m sure some are thinking. Was the SNOO gifted to you by the company or is this a sponsored post? No, absolutely not (I wish though!)

My daughter was born early 2019 and I started this blog about three months postpartum. I paid for the SNOO out of pocket and just had this site as a hobby at the time.

I actually don’t accept gifts on this site as it doesn’t allow me to voice my real opinions. However, in the interest of full disclosure, I loved the SNOO so much I am now an affiliate, meaning I will get a commission if you purchase using my link.

What Is A SNOO?

The SNOO was created by Dr. Harvey Karp, who is well-known in the parenting community for his book, The Happiest Baby on the Block, which is a must-have tool for all parents who want to help their baby self-soothe.

While the SNOO looks like an ordinary bassinet, it is equipped with a microphone that picks up on crying, which then activates the rocking motion and white noise built-into the bassinet, to help your baby soothe back to sleep. (How awesome is that?!)

The noise and movements created by the SNOO recreate a womb-like environment, which is where a baby feels most comfortable, and where they are more likely to fall back to sleep on their own.

How Does The SNOO Work?

To use the SNOO, you need to swaddle your baby into one of the three SNOO sacks included with the bassinet. These sacks come in small, medium, or large which ensures your bassinet grows with your baby.

The SNOO sacks are made from organic cotton, using a breathable mesh that works to reduce overheating, keeping your baby comfortable during the night. Clip-in wings help to keep your baby on their back as they sleep and minimizes the chance of rolling.

These features help to greatly reduce the risk of SIDS.

Once your baby is swaddled and placed into the SNOO, it begins to gently rock and plays white noise through its speakers, to mimic conditions in the womb. This helps your baby fall asleep on their own. Hallelujah!

If your baby begins to cry, the microphone on the SNOO picks up the noise, and speeds up the rocking motion, while increasing the white noise sounds to try and soothe even more.

Even the fussiest babies will be soothed by the intuitive and smart bassinet, and it can calm most babies in under a minute!

The SNOO doesn’t just stop there though! There is an app that parents can use to customize settings for their baby. This allows you to set the speed and volume of the bassinet, how intense the soothing is at starting level, and also how responsive the bassinet is when your baby cries.

The app will also track your baby’s sleep, so you can see how much time they spend asleep each day, how long their longest stretch is at night, and their sleeping patterns over days and months. (This is an amazing feature!)

It really is a smart bassinet and it is intuitive and responsive to your baby at all times, but still gives you control of how often and how much your baby is soothed to sleep.

Does The SNOO Rock All Night?

The SNOO senses when your baby is upset and starts rocking and playing gentle white noise. If your baby is calm, it will spend the night gently moving back and forth.

The rocking motion all night is very gentle and soothing for the baby. You do have the option to turn it off though.

But in that case, it will just be a regular bassinet and won’t sense when your baby is getting upset and restless.

Is The SNOO Really Worth It?

There is no way to avoid waking up during the night to feed your baby. This is just a part of parenthood, and you cannot expect your little one to sleep through feeds.

However, if you value those wonderful stretches between feeds, being able to catch up on a few hours of sleep, instead of soothing a non-hungry baby back to sleep, the SNOO is more than worth it.

Not only will it save you waking up to put your baby back to sleep when they wake up fussy, but you also get to cut down on the time spent putting them to sleep after a feed.

Once you have fed and burped your baby, you can gently soothe them and put them back in the bassinet. The SNOO will do half the job of helping them fall back asleep.

This really does cut out hours of fussing and sleeplessness each night! As any other parent who has been there, you know how important it is to catch up on as much sleep as you can.

The other aspect that makes the SNOO worth it, as if avoiding sleep deprivation wasn’t enough, is that the SNOO makes sleep training so much easier too.

As it soothes your baby back to sleep, they learn to fall asleep on their own, which is a skill that often takes parents quite some time to teach.

So yes, 1,000% the SNOO is worth its weight in gold!

It will be that product that you recommend to all your mom friends to help them make it through the first few months. My girlfriends (and the occasional random stranger!) were all sick of listening to me talk about it towards the end.

How Much Does The SNOO Cost?

The SNOO costs a whopping $1,495. That’s right. $1,495 for a bassinet.

BUT before you say ‘no way!’ You have options when it comes to the SNOO. I did not have $1,500 lying around to purchase a bassinet my baby would outgrow in 6 months.

But luckily, you can rent the SNOO!

Renting the SNOO starts at $3.40 per day which is significantly less than buying it. Renting, assuming you bought it when the baby was born and returned at 6 months when they transition to crib, will save you almost $1,000.

Also SNOO is always rolling out new rental programs and special offers for new parents so it’s a good idea to check it out. You may just get an even better deal.

Is SNOO Dangerous?

Some parents might be nervous to trust a bassinet that has a built-in motor, speaker, and microphone to soothe their baby to sleep, but the SNOO is actually one of the safest spaces for your little one to sleep if used correctly.

The included SNOO swaddles ensure that your baby is safely secure and on their back for the night, which is so important, especially during the first 6 months, to reduce the chance of SIDS.

If sleep-safety is of utmost importance to you, which it really should be, then the SNOO should be on the top of your list for this reason alone.

Ignoring the fact that the SNOO rocks and soothes your baby back to sleep, the fact that it promotes back-only sleeping for 6 months really just makes it worth every penny.

SNOO has also proven to be safer for parents as well. Sleep deprivation isn’t just a running joke between parents, and it can have a serious effect on mental health and can cause irritability and frustration throughout the day. 

My own mom once confessed to almost dropping me because she fell asleep while breastfeeding! Thankfully she jolted awake instantly (although if she had dropped me, it would explain SO much 😂 )

But jokes aside, sleep deprivation is a very real problem for new moms.

You also hear stories of parents sitting and rocking their baby to sleep for ages, only to notice their baby isn’t actually in their arms, but instead asleep in the crib.

This might be a funny story at first, but it shows the effect that sleep deprivation has on a parent, and with a new baby involved, there isn’t such a thing as too safe.

So providing babies with the safest possible sleep environment by keeping them on their back, and allowing parents to have enough sleep to function properly, the SNOO is as safe as can be.

Is The SNOO Good For Babies?

Most of us would consider purchasing the SNOO just to get a few hours of extra sleep at night, but the benefits it has for your baby are just as important.

An important aspect of parenting is getting your baby to fall asleep on their own without having to rock or lull them back to sleep. Having them self soothe themselves back to sleep when they wake up in the middle of the night.

Getting your baby to this point of falling asleep on their own can be a very long and difficult process!

The SNOO helps to take most of the stress away from you, and helps to soothe your baby gently when they wake up during the night. Or once they have finished their feed.

The womb-like environment created by the SNOO is as soothing as can be for babies. On top of this, it teaches them that falling asleep on their own is okay!

This really does cut down the lengthy process of sleep training quite drastically. Your little one will be comfortable falling asleep on their own in a short time.

Through the rocking and white noise, the most important takeaway is that your baby will feel comfortable falling asleep without your help. Win-Win!

Does SNOO Automatically Adjust?

One of the most helpful features of the SNOO is that it automatically adjusts to see to your baby’s needs. The microphone in the smart bassinet picks up on when your baby wakes and starts to gently move and soothe them back to sleep.

If your baby does not fall asleep soon, and their crying or fussing becomes worse, the SNOO picks up on this and begins to start rocking a little more and adding in more white noise.

It will continue to do this through 4 different levels of higher sound and motion until your baby stops fussing, or the SNOO shuts off automatically.

However, using the app, you can also adjust the levels and settings yourself to suit your baby and their sleeping habits.

There are also buttons on the SNOO which allow you to change the level of the SNOO while your baby is in the bassinet, so while it can adjust on its own, you are still offered control.

When Should I Stop Using SNOO?

The SNOO is only designed to be used by babies up until 5 or 6 months old. This is while they are still developing their sleeping habits, and when sleep training has a lasting effect on them.

After 5 or 6 months, your baby should be ready to move on to a crib suited for them.

The SNOO offers features to help wean your baby from the environment created by the SNOO before this, by lowering the level of rocking and white noise created when your baby is awake and fussing.

It is not recommended for a baby to use the SNOO from 6 months onwards, as they will be able to move more on their own, and the risk of injury increases. They will need a bigger sleeping space that is more suited to their age and size.

Do Babies Become Dependent On SNOO?

It is natural to worry that your baby might become dependent on the womb-like environment created by the SNOO to fall asleep, but that isn’t the case.

Using the SNOO, your baby will become an independent sleeper on their own. No need to work through the “cry-it-out” method or any other method that causes both parents and babies distress.

With the auto-adjust settings, and being able to control the levels on your own, you are able to wean your baby from the movement and sounds as they approach 6 months.

By the time you begin weaning your baby from the movements and sounds, they would be falling asleep on their own already. Plus, be comfortable self-soothing themselves back to sleep.

You can slowly start lowering the movements and white noise produced by the SNOO until your baby is fine to fall asleep with the bare minimum, or even no sounds or movements at all.

This makes transitioning to their own crib much easier when they reach 6 months old.

Should I Use SNOO For Naps?

Repetition is the best way to get your baby used to something and to get them to learn to fall asleep on their own and self-soothe.

They will become awfully confused if they are put in the SNOO to sleep at night, but you rock them to sleep during the day.

To keep the consistency and to ensure they learn to fall asleep on their own without your help, you should use the SNOO for naps as well.

The SNOO will help to gently put your baby to sleep on their own at any time of the day.

The more your baby falls asleep in the SNOO, the faster they will learn to sleep on their own. Plus the more sleep you will be able to enjoy!

Can SNOO Be Used With Arms Out?

Yes! You absolutely can use the SNOO with arms out, especially if you’re trying to transition your baby from SNOO to crib.

However, it goes without saying that babies feel their best and sleep longer when they are swaddled.

Some parents think their babies ‘don’t like to be swaddled’ because it seems uncomfortable to us. But babies aren’t adults (No duh! Sorry to state the obvious). The swaddle is the closest thing a baby has to the feeling they had inside the womb.

Unless you’re transitioning to the crib, you and your baby will get better rest when swaddled but you are completely free to leave their arms out as well!

Can SNOO Be Used Without Swaddle?

No, the SNOO needs the swaddle in order to keep track of your babies movements. But more importantly, the swaddle keeps them safe and tucked in when soothing them back to sleep.

If you’re asking whether you can turn off the SNOO and use it as a regular bassinet, that would be a question you should ask Happiest Baby directly. I would think you probably could, but why would you want to? 😉

Is The SNOO Right For You?

This really depends.

I would say that hands-down the SNOO is the best purchase I have made for my newborn.

However, if you have a baby that isn’t fussy and sleeps well, then of course it isn’t necessary. Also, if the price would cause financial strain, then I can’t recommend it.

But, if you can afford the monthly rental fee for 6 months AND have a baby that wakes up constantly, this purchase is a no-brainer!

My baby was not a natural ‘good sleeper’ so I bought it about two-and-a-half weeks postpartum. I was sleeping about two to three hours a night. After about another week and a half of transitioning, I slept a whopping six hours one night!

If your baby isn’t a ‘good sleeper’ (and it works with your budget), I can wholeheartedly recommend the SNOO bassinet to you.

The SNOO – Benefits Parents And Baby

The SNOO is your best option at teaching your newborn to fall asleep on their own.

Especially teaching them soothe themselves back to sleep after a feed or when waking up during the night.

Not to mention giving you those extra hours of sleep that make such a difference.

While it may seem like a big investment at first, there is no doubt in my mind that you will become just as obsessed with the SNOO as I am. It will be THE baby product you use and then recommend to all your friends.

You cannot put a price on good sleep, and while parenting always comes with late nights and tiredness, the SNOO just makes it much more bearable and takes the pain out of sleep training.

So you can be fully awake and enjoy these precious moments with your baby.

Your baby will love the intuitive womb-like environment created by the SNOO, and it will give them a better sleep every night as well.

The whole family will benefit from the helping hand that is the SNOO! When it comes to game-changer, this product is it!