Mom-centered design means mom is more sane, and that’s good for everyone.

I had no idea how my needs would change as I became a new mom. With a new person who has very different demands of my time, a lot has changed. My primary thoughts during month one of motherhood have been “help me find things that make being a mom easier.”

#1 Help me take care of baby

# 2 Help me sleep

The following products have helped with one or both of those problems, and have delighted me along the way (side note, I am in no way affiliated with any of the products or companies — just a fan.)

SNOO Smart Sleeper

Problem: Help me sleep.

Solution: The SNOO keeps River from waking due to startles and puts her back to sleep right away when she does. I get more sleep and do a better job tending to my baby when she needs feeding or changing.

The SNOO is a smart bassinet created by Dr. Harvey Karp who wrote The Happiest Baby on the Block. He teaches the method of soothing babies and helping them sleep with the 5 S’s: swaddle, side, swing, shush, suck. The SNOO is his creation — combining swaddle, swinging and shushing into a bassinet. It comes with a removable swaddle (think of it as a tiny straitjacket like object helping the baby from wriggling all around) which attaches to the bassinet. Once the baby is attached, you can turn the basinet on and it will gently shush the baby with white noise and motion.

I heard about the SNOO from an acquaintance who told me it increased the sleep he and his family were getting immediately. He’d rush ordered a SNOO on Mother’s Day because his newborn wasn’t sleeping more than two hours at a time and he and his wife were slowly being driven mad. It arrived and their baby immediately started sleeping between three and four hours at a time. They were saved from madness!

I showed it to my partner in parenting, MJ. We discussed.

“Does it really work?”
“Is it safe?”
“Is it worth the money?”

Like all online shoppers, we looked to the reviews to help us overcome our doubts. We were astonished at how positive they were (so much so that we almost didn’t believe them.) We researched the safety of the SNOO and yes, it appears to be safe. We waffled due to the price…but then asked ourselves: “How much is sleep worth?” — Answer: a lot.

We also learned that we could likely resell the basinet for about $500 on Craigslist and discovered that there are frequent sales of 20–30% off on the Happiest Baby site. We watched for a sale and ordered our SNOO. The arrival date was just a few weeks before the arrival of our baby girl, River.

Here’s why I love it…

The SNOO is beautiful

I value good design and beautiful spaces. The SNOO is a well designed, beautiful product. The wood base, white mesh surround and hairpin legs are stunning. As a bonus, it comes packaged in recyclable cardboard rather than foam and plastic. This matters. It took five minutes to set up and looked great in our nursery.

Better sleep for baby, mom and the whole family

The SNOO has four levels of soothing. The first level is a gentle swinging motion with a subtle white noise machine. If baby wakes up and becomes agitated, the SNOO will respond and adjust the level of soothing accordingly. It will only soothe for five minutes before shutting off. I am confident that this is the reason we consistently got two four to five hour stretches of sleep each night starting three days after we got home.

It’s now week five and River’s slept seven hours straight two nights in a row. The SNOO prevents the startling that wakes her during short REM cycles with the tight swaddle and quickly rocks her back to sleep if she does wake. When River is wet or hungry, the SNOO doesn’t do it for her and we know right away.

Sleep data

The mobile app that pairs with the SNOO allows you to control the rate of soothing from your phone. You can start, stop and control the levels of motion and noise from the app. In addition, you can see sleep data. This helps us determine whether it’s time for a nap or not and will help us as she gets older and starts to have patterns. We can use the data to see what trends are starting to emerge for her and time her naps accordingly.

Hatch Baby App

Problem: Help me keep track of when I last fed or changed River so that I can figure out what she might need.

Solution: Easy to track and easy to review data that can be stored and shared with multiple caregivers.

Hatch Baby Grow is a scale for tracking your baby’s weight and growth down to the hundredth of an oz. In retrospect, this would have been useful during the early days of establishing feeding to make sure River was growing but we didn’t use the scale, we just used the free mobile app that Hatch Baby offers to integrate with their scale to track feedings and diaper changes.

Here’s why I love it…

Integration with Amazon Alexa

We looked at a few feeding trackers after we had logged two weeks on the paper log from the hospital. We wanted something that would be easy to start and stop while feeding. Then, I thought — why don’t we look for one with an Alexa Skill that can be started with voice? Enter — Hatch Baby.

The app has an Alexa Skill that is fairly savvy. You can command the start and stop of feedings and diaper changes using your voice. In addition, you can ask Hatch Baby when the last feeding or change was and what side the baby last fed on. This is super handy when River is fussy, I am about to feed her and think “what side did she last nurse on?”

Data, Patterns — Shareable via multiple caregivers

With the SNOO app, MJ and I both had to log in with a single account. Hatch Baby thought about that issue and built their product to support multiple accounts for multiple caregivers. This means that MJ and I can both easily log what’s happening with River and when our nanny starts, we can invite her to set up her own account and log events for River as well. When we handoff care to one another, we can easily review the data to see when she last ate, peed or pooped. We also track bottle vs. breast feeding and the number of ounces consumed in a bottle feeding. We’ve used the data countless times to assess what to do next or what might be going on with River.

She’s super fussy and grunting? Let’s look — oh boy, it’s been 24 hours since she pooped. I bet that’s what’s about to happen!

(It’s true, you talk about poop more than you could have ever imagined with a newborn.)

Feeding data, diaper data, all the data — Hatch Baby app

Amazon Echo Alexa, Amazon Show, Amazon Cloud Cam

Problem: My hands are almost always full AND I want to know what’s happening in the nursery and whether or not River needs me.

Solution: Echo voice control for tasks like turning lights on and off + Amazon Show and Cloud Cam to show me what’s happening in the nursery from anywhere.

Alexa has been a part of our household for years and has primarily played music and given weather reports. With the our new baby, we’ve upped our Alexa game and have been leaning on Alexa more often.

Voice control matters more when your hands are holding a baby

The benefit of being able to do anything hands free increases exponentially with a newborn in the house. Our Amazon devices are hooked up to the lights in the nursery, the lights in the kitchen and Alexa has been reading me an audiobook since I am not able to hold a book, turn pages and breastfeed all at once.

We’ve got a first generation Echo in the living room, a second generation dot in the nursery and a we got a VAUX cordless speaker for our other dot so that Alexa can go outside in the yard with me. The VAUX speaker seems to inhibit Alexa’s ability to hear me some but I think the benefits of mobility outweigh the drawback.

I’m not going to lie, we are hooked by the Amazon ecosystem. I’ve had many discussions with friends about how much smarter Google is but once you have one smart device and set it up, it’s hard to switch. We just keep adding to our Amazon collection and the more we add, the more likely it is we will stay with this system. We are also Prime members and Prime day meant major deals on Echo devices — this is when we added the VAUX speaker and an Echo Show + Could camera…

Amazon Cloud Cam View from my phone (while at I was at Penny’s coffee.)

What’s REALLY happening in the nursery?

We started out using a basic audio monitor that I swear, made every noise and coo five times louder than it actually was. I ran into the nursery far to often to see River only to discover she was just fine, smiling, clucking.

We debated whether or not we needed a camera but then Prime day happened and we went for it with the Echo Show and Amazon Cloud camera. LOVE it. I can see the nursery from the kitchen / dining area where we have the Show set up. I can also pull up the camera on my phone from anywhere: the bedroom at night or the backyard. I can even check in on her when I am not at home and just want to see her little face like I did today while I was at Penny’s coffee.

Magnetic Me Sleeper

Problem: It’s hard to get baby clothes on and off and it’s especially hard in the night when I am tired, River is tired and I don’t want to cause either of us extra stress.

Solution: A sleeper that doesn’t need to go over baby’s head and doesn’t need to be snapped or buttoned.

MJ ordered two Magnetic Me sleepers spontaneously one day. I teased him because we already had multiple sleepers and I thought he just wanted to get some cute outfits for our upcoming baby.

Wow. I am so glad he made that impulse buy! These sleepers are my favorite and when I have to use one that is not a Magnetic Me sleeper, I immediately make sure that the Magnetic Me’s are in the wash.

Here’s an example of the kind we got.

Why I love it…

Easy on, easy off

The Magnetic Me’s fasteners are what make them great. There are magnets inside the fabric that work as closures. The sleeper is so easy to get on and off. I don’t have to pull it over her head (potential meltdown moment) because I can lay it flat on the table, put River on top of it, put her arms in the sleeves and close it up in about two seconds.

I can easily open the gown to gain full access to diapers without a lot of wriggling or wrestling with snaps (potential meltdown moment) and it’s easy to use in the middle of the night when changing diapers in low lighting.

So soft

The modal fabric is super soft and silky — a bonus for a sensitive newborn’s skin. They have organic cotton versions as well but we have the modal fabric. River has some rashes and irritation that seem to be aggravated by rough fabrics and the modal fabric is so gentle on her sensitive skin.

River in one of her Magnetic Me sleepers. She’s smiling because she likes it too!

Vava Baby Night Light

Problem: It’s hard to see in the dark. I don’t want bright light to wake up River or blue light tones to disrupt our sleep cycle — and I’m half asleep.

Solution: A light that has a warm hue, is easy to turn on and off and can move around the nursery for night tasks.

The Vava Baby Night Light is so simple and perfect for nighttime feeding and changing.

Footage of MJ checking our River’s diaper in the middle of the night with the Vava.

You can configure the light to have a soft, warm glow that won’t wake you or baby up more than you’ve already been woken. It’s a touch light that you control by simply tapping two finger to turn it on. The brightness is controlled with touch and hold. I use this when I come into the nursery at night to get just enough light to see but not so much that it disrupts our ability to go back to sleep with bright light or blue light.

The other thing I love about this little light is its portability. You can pick it up off of it’s charging base and move it. We frequently use it to check her diaper while she is still in her SNOO at night and set it on the changing table for changes. One last bonus — it came with stickers to add a face of your choice — which I am saving for River so she can customize the light when she’s old enough to decide and use it as her own nightlight.

I push my clients to think about the people they are solving problems for first and foremost when designing new products and services. The products that have made a difference for me in my new role as a mom are those that have obviously considered the real-life context and needs of the people who will be using them. They meet real needs and make me smile every time they make something in my day easier. River smiles too.

Five mom-centered products that have made my first month of motherhood easier