The life of a military family can be pretty nomadic…just take it from Kimberly Dolci, whose husband’s role as an Army officer has meant they’ve called four different states home in the past few years. 

Kimberly describes making friends while in the military as being a bit like a series of whirlwind romances. “You meet someone, and they tell you you’re great, and then they tell you they’re leaving in two months,” she jokes.

As she recently learned, this transient lifestyle can be especially challenging when a baby enters the picture.

Fortunately, she had SNOO.

Kimberly was first tipped off about SNOO by a Facebook group. Though she’d later come to love SNOO’s functionality, she was initially struck by its sleek design.

“It seems so silly, but I thought I don’t care what this thing does, it’s beautiful, and I want it in the room,” she remembers. She had a vision of a “no-theme nursery…neutral colors and neutral everything, and SNOO looked perfect.”

But soon, she realised it wasn’t just the style points that had won so many parents over. Having nannied and babysat a lot in the past, Kimberly saw SNOO’s potential to make life a little easier. Not to mention, Kimberly’s mum was a paediatric nurse, so Kimberly knew that co-sleeping would be out of the question.  

“When I started researching, I realised this thing could be a total game-changer,” she says. “I pitched it to my husband. I’m the spender he’s the saver.”

At the time, they were in upstate New York, while their family was in the Bay Area…and because they’d moved around so much her friends were scattered too. Knowing she wouldn’t have a robust village to help her out, Kimberly made the case to her husband that SNOO could fill in the gaps with a little extra support.

“My husband didn’t know how epic it was going to be. He just had to take my word for it,” she says. “Then, we found out about the military discount, and it was absolutely a deal-maker.”

Within two days of their son Reid’s birth, Kimberly knew they had made the right decision. 

“SNOO alleviated stress, gave us a little bit of free-time shower or eat. But the biggest thing was it let us get back to sleep quicker—I didn’t have to waste time rocking Reid to sleep.”

SNOO really paid off when Kimberly’s husband had to leave for a month-long training early in Reid's life. 

“Reid was only 4 months old, so SNOO saved me,” she says. “I knew if I got Reid in SNOO for a nap, I’d get a break.”

Once Reid was 5-and-a-half months, he was ready to graduate from SNOO.

“Weaning was literally the easiest thing I’ve done,” Kimberly says. They used Happiest Baby’s white noise (which they still play to keep Reid calm and happy during road trips!) and Sleepea, and within two weeks he was fully transitioned to the cot.  

Kimberly says for military mums and dads, SNOO is a must-have.

“I wish that all military families had SNOO,” she says. “Our story is not abnormal. Most of us do not have family around, and do not have a solid friend base because we just moved there or are moving soon, or our best friend moved.” 

In a way, SNOO became an extension of the Dolci family during this time where in-person support was hard to come by. It made Kimberly think of her own grandmother (known as Mammer), who lived across the street when Kimberly was a child and would frequently drop by for an hour or two to help out.   

“My mum said that SNOO is like having Mammer because it can rock Reid back to sleep,” Kimberly says. "SNOO is doing what any grandparent would do if they were visiting.”

In fact, Kimberly’s parents were so charmed by SNOO that they invested in one to keep and pass around among Kimberly’s cousins.

Though Happiest Baby’s military discount clinched Kimberly’s decision to order SNOO, she says based on her experience, she would have paid full price.

“I think you can’t put a price on it,” she says. “If you think about all the factors—help getting sleep, help getting your kid down, help with a kid who needs to be held or rocked or wants to sleep on you when you need a shower—all those times you need someone there, you could pay someone to be there, or you could just invest in SNOO.”

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