Review | Shnuggle Dreami Moses Basket & Baby Bath

If you cast your mind all the way back to my week 25 pregnancy diary, you might recall that our very first baby-related acquisitions were the Shnuggle Dreami moses basket and matching baby bath, which we received as part of the Shnuggle Bath and Bed Bundle.

I mean, you probably DON’T recall that, let’s be honest. I know my pregnancy was absolutely fascinating to me, but everyone else is probably just nodding politely right now, and going, “Suuuure, Amber! OF COURSE we remember every last detail of your never-ending pregnancy – OF COURSE we do!”

So, this is pretty awkward now, isn’t it?

Anyway! These two essential pieces of baby kit were, indeed, one of the very first things we got for Max, and I’m just going to take a quick moment here to stop and reflect on the fact that, when they arrived, back in September, I was actually terrified that we were tempting fate by having a baby bath and moses basket, but – crucially – NO BABY to put in them yet. I just couldn’t even imagine him being here, sleeping in that little basket, and yet…

YOU GUYS.

I STILL can’t get over the fact that I have an ACTUAL BABY. I’m slightly worried, in fact, that one day he’ll be, like, 35 or something, and I’ll still be turning to Terry at regular intervals and going, “Can you BELIEVE we MADE him?!”

Nope, CANNOT get over it. Ever.

But, of course, he’s not 35 – he’s still just a tiny little baby, and tiny little babies need somewhere to sleep, don’t they? Now, as it happens, Max actually has no less than three different places to sleep in our house – and that’s not counting the Sleepyhead Deluxe, which I’ll be reviewing soon. He has one cot in our bedroom, one in the nursery (Which he won’t be using until he’s older), and then there’s the Shnuggle Dreami, which, as you can see, we’re currently keeping in the living room:

So, I’ll just quickly say here that it wasn’t actually our intention to have a moses basket in the living room: or indeed, to have THREE FREAKING BABY BEDS at all – that would’ve seemed a bit excessive, even for us. I can’t deny, though, that it’s turned out to be super-handy having one there. The living room is where we spend most of our time right now when we’re not sleeping: in fact, I’ve joked more than once lately that I feel a bit like The Prisoner of the Sofa, most days, I spent so much time on it. I’m writing this post from it right now, actually, with Max in the Dreami beside me, where I can easily keep an eye on him, and pick him up if he needs me: it’s just much more convenient than working in the office and I’m very much appreciating the close proximity to the kitchen, and, well, NETFLIX. Because I have never appreciated Netflix more than I do during all of those night feeds, people, seriously.

Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that the Dreami works pretty well with our decor, does it? No, it does not.

To be totally honest, it was the way the Shnuggle Dreami looks that attracted me to it in the first place: I just really liked that rather minimal, streamlined shape, and I loved the curved base, which flips upside down to turn it from a standard moses basket into a rocking crib. We use it as shown in the photos the vast majority of the time: we have used it as a rocker, though, and it’s really easy to just turn the base upside down – it’s very light, and easy to carry, which was a big relief to me right after my c-section. Er, and NOW, actually.

The other thing I like about the Shnuggle Dreami is the fact that the lining is water resistant, and easily wipes clean. This has proven to be absolutely essential for us, as Max has a bit of reflux, and a tendency to spit up a lot (as you can see from the burp cloth strategically placed under his head in so many of my photos!) , so I really appreciate the fact that I can just wipe the lining clean, or take it off and pop it in the machine, if necessary. If I had one complaint, meanwhile, it would probably be the size: the basket is more than large enough for Max to sleep in now, and it should last him a good few months yet, but it’s too small to use with the Sleepyhead Deluxe pod, which I’d have liked to have been able to fit inside it.

(The mobile you can see in the photos, meanwhile, was a separate purchase: it’s this one by Tiny Love, and Max is absolutely OBSESSED with it – best £24.95 we’ve ever spent, for sure.)

(Yeah, this bathroom is a mess – it’s next on our list for a remodel…)

As I said, we got the Dreami as part of the Bed and Bath bundle, which also included the Shnuggle Bath, plus a hooded towel and washcloths. The bundle doesn’t, however, include the folding bath stand, which we opted to buy separately – I find it much easier to bath Max standing up (Er, I’M standing up, I mean, not Max – that would just be weird…), so this turned out to be a good investment. I had originally thought I’d fold it up and put both the stand and the bath away after each use – I even cleared a space in the hall cupboard, especially for it – but I also originally thought I’d be wearing makeup every day and THAT hasn’t happened either, so, HAHA, NOPE: it stays out all the time, but it doesn’t take up too much space, so it’s all cool.

Embarrassing parenting confession coming up: it took us a while to pluck up the courage to give Max his first bath when we got home from hospital. I say “pluck up the courage” – it was partly that (I mean, wet, slippery baby, lots of water: I had images of him just popping out of my hands like a bar of wet soap), but it was also the fact that bathing him seemed like a monumental task, at first, and we had this constant stream of visitors, and laundry, and all kinds of other things happening, so at first I was just like WHO HAS THE TIME TO BATH A BABY, SRSLY?

Anyway, we finally decided to give it a go, and, happily, it went much better than I’d expected. One of the things that had appealed to me about the Shnuggle bath was the fact that it holds the baby in an upright position, which helped reassure me that he wasn’t going to slip under the water. As I said, the stand has also been a huge benefit, especially right after my surgery, when I was trying to avoid too much bending from the waist, or crouching at floor level. Predictably, Max started crying when we took his clothes off ready for the bath (He doesn’t do this nearly as often now, but at first he absolutely HATED being unclothed!), but once he was in the water, he calmed down, and just kind of say there looking a bit bemused, like, “Ima tolerate this behaviour from you, mum, but, just so you know, U WEIRD…” He’s too young to do any splashing or playing, obviously, but he seems to quite enjoy bathtime these days – I’m not sure if the warm water reminds him of being in the womb or something, but he’ll sit there quite happily and let us wash him… and then start screaming again as soon as we take him out, obviously:

(He’s almost criminally cute in his little hooded towel, so I’m prepared to forgive him for the fact that he regularly pees in it as soon as we lift him out of the bath. The first time, he took us by surprise, and I ended up just kind of aiming him towards the bath again, like he was some kind of fairground sideshow, and I was going to win a prize for my aim. We’re better prepared these days, needless to say…)

I think a super-cute baby photo seems like a pretty good place to end this post on, but, before I do, full disclosure: we were sent both the Shnuggle Dreami and baby bath (minus the bath stand, which we bought ourselves) in exchange for this review – we do, however, use both of them constantly (Or Max does, anyway: Terry and I wouldn’t fit into a baby bath or moses basket…) and would happily recommend them – and I’m sure Max would, too, if he could only talk…

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