30 best luxury parenting products that are worth it, from the Snoo to the Uppababy Vista
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a couple in possession of a baby must be in need of an eye-wateringly expensive stroller. And a bottle-warmer. And a convertible high chair. And a tasteful baby play gym. And a carrier. And a self-rocking, fully-automated crib system.
In this economy, what exactly is a new mom with a non-astronomical salary supposed to do? Which of the luxury baby products are actually worth it — and which are better off left to people with more money than sense? Likewise, which bargains punch above their weight and which are just awful duds?
Armed with my newborn son, my husband, and a complete lack of “a village” (both of our families live abroad, so these products were our lifelines), I tried out pretty much everything for the first eight months of his life.
Blessed with a baby who never sleeps and a tiny New York City apartment, I made sure to only recommend things that are worth the space they take up.
Smart cribs that will actually help your baby sleep
Cradlewise convertible smart bassinet and crib: From $1,399, Cradlewise.com
The Cradlewise is a beautiful-looking, Scandi-chic crib with mesh sides and a wooden frame, and, despite its eye-watering price tag, it comes with a number of add-ons that do make it worth the expense. It has a built-in sound machine that offers a lot of what parent favorite, the Hatch dream machine ($59.99, Hatch.co), can do, as well as a baby monitor that sits in the bar above the bassinet. That monitor connects to an app so you can watch your sleeping baby in real time on your phone, and the gadget even keeps a check on your baby’s pre-waking movements so that it can bounce and soothe your little one before they fully wake. That gives it an edge over the Snoo, which works by picking up on the sound of your baby crying and so necessitates a full, angry wake-up before it starts to soothe. In general, everything feels more technologically slick.
I assumed my baby would want to sleep in a standard, smaller bassinet but he wouldn’t accept it. Instead, the gentle movement of the Cradlewise won out. It’s also worth noting that you get a 60-day trial period, during which you can return the crib for a full refund if your baby doesn’t take to it. There was a period of time when my own baby rejected the Cradlewise for a few weeks. I couldn’t tell you why but, just as quickly as it began, that period ended and he now happily sleeps in it again — and because it’s a convertible crib rather than a newborn bassinet, it can be used until he’s two years old.
I’d say the Cradlewise is the minimum viable “large” crib — and its wooden frame is made for easy gliding along the floor without damage. We slid this thing in and out of our bedroom and the living room with ease, multiple times. So, if you’re living somewhere, like we were, where space is a serious commodity, I can’t recommend the Cradlewise enough.
Snoo smart sleeper bassinet: $1,695, Happiestbaby.com
I wanted to hate . By God, I really wanted to hate it. It’s expensive, it’s weird-looking, it’s surely unnatural. And there are a lot of things I did hate about it when I threw in the towel and rented one during the dreaded four month sleep regression – including the fact that it randomly broke on my final month of testing and required recalibrating
