Five HOT New Baby Items Tested on Baby Number Three

Five HOT New Baby Items Tested on Baby Number Three

Today I am reviewing Five New{er} Baby Items that we’ve purchased and used with baby number three that are pretty HOT items in the baby market and fairly high dollar products.  Here is my review of The Snoo, The Willow Breast Pump, The Peanut Changing Table, the Dock A Tot, and the Ollie Wrap.

I feel like these have all become pretty popular items in the last three years since having my 2nd baby.  I have given them all a try with our third baby and here are my feelings on them.

(Not that it changes anything, but non of this was gifted to me for anyone that may be wondering.)

The Snoo

The Snoo Review
The Snoo Review

So I have shared a little peek into my feelings about the Snoo in my instagram stories over the last couple of months.  This one is hard for me to review because I know so many people seem to love and swear by it, but it wasn’t the best for us.  We got this about two weeks after Molly was born thanks to my super generous cousin that sent it to us.  I already had Molly sleeping in the Rock N Play before the Snoo arrived.  The Snoo is a super-safe, super-snazzy, high-end bassinet for babies up to 6 months old.  It connects via blue tooth to your phone and it swaddles the baby in a really neat bassinet.  The bassinet makes sounds and soothes the baby to sleep by rocking the cradle side to side.  The whole concept is pretty amazing.  The main thing for us during our time with the Snoo was that it didn’t keep the baby to sleep well.  It could rock a baby that is wide awake to sleep, but it just didn’t keep her to sleep for long periods.  And then she was sleeping so amazing in the Rock N Play, I didn’t want to keep putting her in the Snoo where she wasn’t sleeping as well.  So the long and short of it is that we didn’t completely fall in love with it.  We used it for  naps here and there because I did love that I could put her in it awake and it would rock her to sleep, but otherwise, we didn’t use it for night time sleep long.  I have now shipped it up to my cousin who will be having a baby soon and I pray it works wonderful for her! I hear that you just have to give it a little time for the babies to adapt to it.  If I was not shipping the bassinet to my cousin for her baby, I would have used The Snoo’s 30 day, no-risk trial and shipped it back to them (they pay for the return shipping too).  That sounds kind of harsh, but I just didn’t end up needing it for this baby.  It might have worked great for one of my other babies though.  You just never know!

The Willow Breast Pump

Willow Breast Pump Review
Willow Breast Pump Review

Okay, so here is another high-ticket item that is another amazing concept.  Pretty much everything you could dream of for a breast pump, especially for us Mom’s that might almost exclusively pump.  For me, this item doesn’t replace my Medela Pump In Style that I already owned and used for my other two babies, but it does make life more convenient and a bit easier.  I traveled to a college football game with it and was able to pump in the bathroom stall without having any wires or needing electrical outlets.  I loved that!  Plus, it was compact enough to just fit in a reasonable size purse for the day!  If I was a working Mom and had to pump at work, you better believe I would love this!!  This pump fully fits in your bra, has special 4 ounce milk bags that fit in the pump, and also connects via bluetooth to an app on your phone that shows you how long you’ve been pumping and how much milk each boob has produced!  It’s pretty amazing.  It’s not perfect though, so I thought the best way to share would be through a little Pro/Con list.

Pros:

Compact/No Tubes/Easy to Clean/Hands-Free/No Cords/Timer/Milk Counter (ounces)

Cons:

Expensive/ Bluetooth Sometimes Disconnects / Always have to have your phone next to you / Expensive Milk Bags (and you go through a lot of them) / Difficult to retrieve milk from bags in my opinion / A Two Week learning curve just to be comfortable using it / Milk bags only hold 4 ounces and it really only ever holds more like 3.5 ounces per bag / I feel like I always get more milk when I use my Medela pump

So the moral of my pro/con list is actually that I cuss at the pump quite often, but yet I don’t want to live without it 😊 😃 Does that sound familiar to anyone????

The convenience of it is just awesome.  I’m in a rush, I need my hands, it’s the middle of the day or dinner time, I throw the pumps in my bra and I’m multi-tasking at it’s finest.  I love that part of it! But then sometimes one boob is pumping perfectly and getting plenty of milk and then 10 min in, I realize the other boob has only pumped .2 ounces and hasn’t been working properly.  PISSED.

So I’m sure I’ve just made your decision really hard now.  I’m glad I have it, but it’s not perfect.  That’s just the best way I can explain it! Side Note: I do have large boobs and didn’t buy that larger flange for the pump, but that could have something to do with my difficulty with the pumps sometimes. I don’t know.  🤷‍♀️ I just thought I would throw out that disclaimer.

Peanut Changing Table

Peanut Changing Table Review
Peanut Changing Table Review

I chose this changing pad because I wanted an easy pad that could go on top of our wooden dresser in the babies room.  I loved that this one was made of rubber so it wouldn’t slip on the dresser and that it was super easy to wipe down if a little mess was made on it.  So far it has been absolutely perfect for our needs.  Molly is just over two months old and fits great on it and doesn’t wiggle around too much yet to make me worries about her lying on it without being strapped in.  This is pretty pricy for a changing pad, but if you need something to set on top of a dresser and stay put, this is your item!  Love it!

The Dock a Tot

Dock A Tot Review
Dock A Tot Review

this picture makes me laugh 😂 every time I see it!

At first, like the first couple of weeks, I wasn’t sure if we were going to love and use this as much as everyone has obsessed over it.  I would lie her in it when she was hanging out on my bed which I liked and I would also throw it on the floor sometimes when I was taking a shower so I could still have an eye on her; but other than that, I wasn’t using it a ton.  Now, I have placed it in her crib a lot, and lie her in it for nap times during the day.  I’m sure it is a faux-pas to have this in the crib; but she has loved it and I have loved seeing how she sleeps in the crib.  The dock a tot provides the perfect amount of cuddle around her and she has been sleeping really well in it.  We still have her sleeping in a rock-n-play in her room for night time sleeping, so that’s why I wanted to see how she did in her crib.  I also think this will be nice to travel with which we haven’t done yet.  I know people that place them in their pack N plays when they travel and really love it! Overall, I would recommend this item and I think as she keeps getting bigger, I will continue to love it even more!

The Ollie Wrap

So, I purchased two of these swaddle wraps before Molly was born and we used them in the beginning. As much as I wanted these to be our go-to wraps, I still love our Halo swaddle wraps the BEST and use these exclusively now.  The Halo wraps are really thick and pretty heavy which is why I wanted to try something different, but it is the thickness of the Halo wraps that make them so good and keep the babies arms swaddled all night long.   So with that said, I am not sold on the Ollie Wrap even though I will use it for naps from time to time and I like the lighter weight of them for our HOT climate.  I just still prefer our tried and true (all three babies) Halo wraps.  They are magic in my opinion and the key to keeping those babies asleep and glued into their swaddles!

 

Okay friends!! I feel like some of these reviews were a long time overdue, but I wanted to make sure we gave them all a thorough test before I gave you my honest opinions.  You can shoot me with any questions that you might have.  I really loved trying out all these new baby products.  It totally amazes me how much changes in just the 3 years since my last baby and 5 years since my first baby.  I have also been working on an updated Baby Registry now that I am 3 babies deep and back in touch with a lot of the baby products on the market, so I will try and finish that up for you guys next month! Hope you enjoyed 🙂

And in case any of you might be in the market for any new baby products and need a little help purchasing it.  You can enter below for a chance to win a big Amazon gift card for the holidays below!! Good Luck!

We’re making a list and checking it twice!
I’ve teamed up with an amazing group of bloggers
to give YOU a chance to win:
a $750 Amazon Gift Card, just in time to Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales!

Simply enter below by completing the rafflecopter.
You’ll receive one entry per completion.
This giveaway is open to the U.S. and Canada only and runs until 11/22.
Winner will be announced here. Good Luck!

Void where prohibited.
By entering the giveaway you acknowledge that you are agreeing to complete each task,
which involves following, liking and subscribing to newsletter’s.

a Rafflecopter giveaway