Postpartum Challenges: My Journey with a Snoo Bassinet

Tried and Tested

TW: pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum discussed.

Product

Snoo Smart Sleeper (hired, not bought)

Used for

My second baby, newborn to 15 weeks

Verdict

Wonderful for our circumstances. Not a fix for sleep in general.

Paid for it?

Yes, hired it myself. I am now an affiliate of the company that makes it, so this post carries a referral link

Would I again?

Yes, without hesitation. I would still start with a regular bassinet first

It’s no secret that I had a rough postpartum with my second baby. After 41 weeks of hyperemesis, symphysis pubis dysfunction, multiple pandemic lockdowns, a house move and a toddler following me around the house asking me why I was ‘coughing’ into the toilet so much, I was done.

I had an intense, spontaneous labour that, despite all of my calm birth training and previous labour experience, I was totally out of control of. It ended up with a shoulder dystocia and a ventouse delivery, and I sprained both of my arms by gripping the bed handles through too many rounds of 7 in 10 contractions. I was then handed a 4.6kg baby boy, and it all made sense as to why he was so stuck. It was a packaging issue for my deliciously chubby baby.

My birth, despite being challenging and not what I was expecting, was not traumatic for me. I was well supported by my midwifery and medical team. I was informed, safe, and action was taken fast to keep me and my baby safe. My postpartum experience, however, was traumatic.

I was alone in hospital, having given birth at the peak of the Omicron wave. I was discharged home within 24 hours, which I had always known was the plan. O was born on the Saturday, I was home on the Sunday and my husband went to work on the Monday. Looking back, this was the worst planning we have ever done. My first postpartum experience was a dream, so I think we just anticipated that I’d go in, have my baby, come home and crack on. Ha.

My body was so physically injured from head to toe that I remember trying to bake a cake while two-day-old O snoozed in his bassinet, and my fingers and arms were so badly sprained from labour that I couldn’t turn the knob on the oven. I would get stuck sitting on the couch because my coccyx was in such bad shape. My clinical oversupply had me diagnosed with bilateral mastitis in the first few weeks, and I leaked through every top my husband and I owned, multiple times a day. I had daily chills and shivers and my feet ached like never before. This went on for months. You can imagine how hard it was to lift a 4.6kg baby.

If all of that wasn’t hard enough, it turns out O had broken his collarbone during delivery, although I didn’t discover this until he was about six weeks old. He was the saddest baby and so tricky to settle. Like a lot of newborns, he needed to be close and rocked and on me. But my body just couldn’t sustain that, especially as I was on my own so much. I had wraps and carriers and tried my hardest to wear him all of the time, but with a toddler in tow and a broken body, I physically couldn’t. I was devastated and confused.

Enter, the Snoo

In the middle of the night, my superpower of being a pragmatic and expert problem solver kicked into gear. I could see that I was not thriving, which meant none of my family were thriving, and we had almost no support. I even told my husband we may as well be living overseas for the lack of help we had.

That night I lay in bed and booked a psychology appointment for myself, ordered a meal service for the family, booked a lactation consultant to try and get the oversupply under control, and I hired a Snoo.

When I had my first baby, I knew a few people with a Snoo and wondered why they needed it. Don’t you just settle your baby to sleep and put them in their bassinet? Well, look who’s laughing now. Not laughing. I was mostly crying.

My Snoo arrived two days later and the moment I put O in, he was gently rocked to sleep. It was your extra pair of hands, soothing your baby while you shower, cook, take a call, or sleep. It responds automatically to fussing with sound and motion.

That first miraculous settle was not how it always went, though. He’s a human, not a robot, and unbeknownst to me he had a broken collarbone. Things weren’t always smooth sailing.

What the Snoo actually did for me

1. It gave me a moment to myself, to play with my daughter, rest my body, go to the toilet, or heaven forbid, eat something.
2. I could stop attempting the impossible mission of transferring an already asleep, easily woken baby into a bassinet.
3. It gave me peace of mind that he was safe even though he wasn’t in my sprained arms, thanks to the sleep sack.
4. It helped him resettle between sleep cycles more often than not, and when it couldn’t, I knew to just get him up.
5. It meant my husband could put him down for a nap.
6. The app told me whether he was awake or asleep, so if I was outside with my daughter or had made it to the supermarket, I could check on him.

Who might not rate it

It would be interesting to see how the Snoo goes for families with an ‘easier’ baby. Some clients I have worked with have described it as an overpriced white noise machine. Do I agree? No. But I can see how some would think that, particularly if you are a bit gun shy with the rocking motion. It’s all in how you use it and how realistic your expectations are.

Will it miraculously stop your baby fighting sleep, deliver long naps every day, and prevent every sleep regression while folding your washing and toilet training your toddler? No.

Will it help settle your baby, give you a break, support your baby between sleep cycles and help wean out sleep associations? Absolutely yes.

Getting out of it

At 15 weeks old, O decided he knew how to self-settle for all naps and bedtime. I had played around with the weaning functions but never went hard on them. He also discovered his thumb, which was a game-changer. I transitioned him out of the Snoo and back into his regular bassinet, and to this day he is still a wonderful independent sleeper. Demonstrative and vocal? Yes. But I wouldn’t change that for the world.

Would I do it again?

If I were ever to have a third baby I would do a lot of things differently. Gee whiz, the list is long. I wouldn’t change hiring a Snoo though. I would probably start with a regular bassinet again, but I would not hesitate in going with one. It was wonderful for us and our circumstances.

So much so that I now love having phone consults with families looking for sleep advice with the Snoo. Their customer service is also top notch.

Related reading

• My honest experience with the Snoo: what worked, what didn’t, and what I’d do differently

I hired this Snoo myself during my own postpartum. I later became an affiliate of Happiest Baby, the company that makes it, so that families could access a discount, because a Snoo is not cheap. That means I may earn a small amount if you buy through my link. It has not changed what I say about it, including the part above where I note some families call it an overpriced white noise machine.