What is the one thing we all want more after becoming parents? It’s sleep. And what is the number one question we get asked as new moms- is the baby sleeping through the night. Yes, he’s sleeping through the night- but does two hours, sometimes 20 minute increments really count? I had to ask myself. What could I hope for? Because, hello, this gal needed some sleep, like bad. I was feeling it big time this go around. I was sleep deprived, running a business, managing the household when my husband was out of town (which is fairly often as a commercial pilot) and taking care of 4 other kids who really saw me as nothing but Silas’s bodyguard. They wanted to all be great ‘helpers’ more than great listeners haha. But please kids, do not touch Silas when he’s sleeping means do not touch Silas when he’s sleeping!!! It was mutanty those first couple weeks home from the NICU. I was on survival mode, but smart enough to ask for help before any postpartum emotions got the better of me. Then Happiest Baby came into my life. I was intrigued over the SNOO, but skeptical. Would it actually work? What happened if Silas would only sleep in the snoo and nothing else? Was it worth the investment? Is this really something I would consider as life-changing as I hoped it would? 
The thing about having your 5th baby is you get practical, but particular. There is no need in the nursery for the diaper wipe warmer, or the 20 different styles of bottles to where you can never find the right parts in the drawer to just make one bottle. I want what works. I want my life simplified. and nothing else. It’s now all about quality over quantity. I’ve learned that the investment items make up for more than their worth in the long run- they seriously become my go-to’s that I can’t live without. I’ve heard how $72 for a maternity support tanktop seems pricey, but when you consider you’ll wear it everyday for perhaps 40 weeks, we’re talking about less than 25 cents per day. Same goes for the SNOO. After the initial sticker shock, when you break it down over the course of 6 months, less than $7 a day is worth every penny if that is what I’m paying for a good night sleep. I mean I’ve seen people’s daily whipped mocha extra shot with nonfat milk Starbucks coffee cost more than that. So does it work? My husband opened the box and immediately put it together in less than 5 minutes, it was that fast. I kinda think he wished it was harder so it would take longer just because he likes to be handy and do these kinda hubby things. The app took longer to set up at first, but that may have had more to do with the fact that I hadn’t updated my phone in forever and by my estimates somewhere around 21,000 kid photos were on my iPhone that need to be backed up, so you get it. 
But this is when the magic started. Will got super obsessed with the SNOO at this moment when he saw how the app worked with and controlled the bassinet. It has a sound machine, and the base moves based on how much soothing baby needs to fall back asleep. And I realized that this was by far the number one reason why I now loved the SNOO as well- Will was going to want to put Silas to sleep every chance he got. That is huge. We parent fairly equal, but there is no doubt having something that makes Dad feel more part of parenting a newborn is very helpful. We have our regular sized crib in our nursery that all our other kids have used, but I prefer to keep our babies in our bedroom for the first 6 months, so this works out perfect. It’s gorgeous and beautiful, and doesn’t scream ‘baby’, keeping our master bedroom focused on us and our marriage, rather then the extension of the nursery. The bigger kids can’t just take him out of he bassinet without asking because he’s strapped down and my little ones can’t reach all the way in from the top. It’s a safety win-win. Honestly, these are the things I didn’t think of when I was pregnant with baby #1 and building a baby registry, but if you’re considering having more than one child, I always suggest looking long term from experience. 
So our experience has been better than expected and have been completely blown away. There really is no words to explain how it works, but it does. It brings routine to the sleep schedule and helps me keep track without having to do anything more than one-touch on the app. So it makes it easy for me to put Silas to sleep and walk away without stressing if he is sleeping safe. So smarter sleep is better sleep.
The thing about having your 5th baby is you get practical, but particular. There is no need in the nursery for the diaper wipe warmer, or the 20 different styles of bottles to where you can never find the right parts in the drawer to just make one bottle. I want what works. I want my life simplified. and nothing else. It’s now all about quality over quantity. I’ve learned that the investment items make up for more than their worth in the long run- they seriously become my go-to’s that I can’t live without. I’ve heard how $72 for a maternity support tanktop seems pricey, but when you consider you’ll wear it everyday for perhaps 40 weeks, we’re talking about less than 25 cents per day. Same goes for the SNOO. After the initial sticker shock, when you break it down over the course of 6 months, less than $7 a day is worth every penny if that is what I’m paying for a good night sleep. I mean I’ve seen people’s daily whipped mocha extra shot with nonfat milk Starbucks coffee cost more than that. So does it work? My husband opened the box and immediately put it together in less than 5 minutes, it was that fast. I kinda think he wished it was harder so it would take longer just because he likes to be handy and do these kinda hubby things. The app took longer to set up at first, but that may have had more to do with the fact that I hadn’t updated my phone in forever and by my estimates somewhere around 21,000 kid photos were on my iPhone that need to be backed up, so you get it. But this is when the magic started. Will got super obsessed with the SNOO at this moment when he saw how the app worked with and controlled the bassinet. It has a sound machine, and the base moves based on how much soothing baby needs to fall back asleep. And I realized that this was by far the number one reason why I now loved the SNOO as well- Will was going to want to put Silas to sleep every chance he got. That is huge. We parent fairly equal, but there is no doubt having something that makes Dad feel more part of parenting a newborn is very helpful. We have our regular sized crib in our nursery that all our other kids have used, but I prefer to keep our babies in our bedroom for the first 6 months, so this works out perfect. It’s gorgeous and beautiful, and doesn’t scream ‘baby’, keeping our master bedroom focused on us and our marriage, rather then the extension of the nursery. The bigger kids can’t just take him out of he bassinet without asking because he’s strapped down and my little ones can’t reach all the way in from the top. It’s a safety win-win. Honestly, these are the things I didn’t think of when I was pregnant with baby #1 and building a baby registry, but if you’re considering having more than one child, I always suggest looking long term from experience. 
So our experience has been better than expected and have been completely blown away. There really is no words to explain how it works, but it does. It brings routine to the sleep schedule and helps me keep track without having to do anything more than one-touch on the app. So it makes it easy for me to put Silas to sleep and walk away without stressing if he is sleeping safe. So smarter sleep is better sleep.
Xx Valerie
Always a BLANQI girl, Valerie is wearing the BLANQI Pull-down Access...
