SNOO Gave This On-the-Move Army Family a Helping Hand
The life of a military family can be pretty nomadicâŚjust take it from Kimberly Dolci, whose husbandâs role as an Army officer has meant theyâve called four different states home in the past few years.Â
Kimberly describes making friends while in the military as being a bit like a series of whirlwind romances. âYou meet someone, and they tell you youâre great, and then they tell you theyâre leaving in two months,â 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 SNOOÂ by a Facebook group. Though sheâd later come to love SNOOâs functionality, she was initially struck by its sleek design.
âIt seems so silly, but I thought I donât care what this thing does, itâs beautiful, and I want it in the room,â she remembers. She had a vision of a âno-theme nurseryâŚneutral colors and neutral everything, and SNOO looked perfect.â
But soon, she realised it wasnât just the style points that had won so many parents over. Having nannied and babysat a lot in the past, Kimberly saw SNOOâs potential to make life a little easier. Not to mention, Kimberlyâs mum was a paediatric nurse, so Kimberly knew that co-sleeping would be out of the question. Â
âWhen I started researching, I realised this thing could be a total game-changer,â she says. âI pitched it to my husband. Iâm the spender heâs the saver.â
At the time, they were in upstate New York, while their family was in the Bay AreaâŚand because theyâd moved around so much her friends were scattered too. Knowing she wouldnât 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.
âMy husband didnât know how epic it was going to be. He just had to take my word for it,â she says. âThen, we found out about the military discount, and it was absolutely a deal-maker.â
Within two days of their son Reidâs birth, Kimberly knew they had made the right decision.Â
âSNOO 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 quickerâI didnât have to waste time rocking Reid to sleep.â
SNOO really paid off when Kimberlyâs husband had to leave for a month-long training early in Reid's life.Â
âReid was only 4 months old, so SNOO saved me,â she says. âI knew if I got Reid in SNOO for a nap, Iâd get a break.â
Once Reid was 5-and-a-half months, he was ready to graduate from SNOO.
âWeaning was literally the easiest thing Iâve done,â Kimberly says. They used Happiest Babyâs 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. Â
Kimberly says for military mums and dads, SNOO is a must-have.
âI wish that all military families had SNOO,â she says. âOur 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.âÂ
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. Â Â
âMy mum said that SNOO is like having Mammer because it can rock Reid back to sleep,â Kimberly says. "SNOO is doing what any grandparent would do if they were visiting.â
In fact, Kimberlyâs parents were so charmed by SNOO that they invested in one to keep and pass around among Kimberlyâs cousins.
Though Happiest Babyâs military discount clinched Kimberlyâs decision to order SNOO, she says based on her experience, she would have paid full price.
âI think you canât put a price on it,â she says. âIf you think about all the factorsâhelp 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 showerâall those times you need someone there, you could pay someone to be there, or you could just invest in SNOO.â
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