The Newton Baby Crib Mattress Actually Helped *Me* Sleep Better, Too

Value: 15/20
Functionality: 20/20
Quality: 20/20
Aesthetic: 20/20
Safety: 20/20
TOTAL: 95/100

The time had come: She was officially transitioning out of the bassinet and into her Big Girl Crib.™ My feelings on already reaching yet another milestone aside, it was a big deal, one that needed a big mattress to go with it. And when the Newton Baby Crib Mattress popped onto my radar, it almost seemed too good to be true. I had to try it.

It had every safety feature I was looking for in a crib mattress. It was almost like they were inside my baby-safety-anxiety-filled brain. For starters, it’s breathable, made from the brand’s patented Wovenaire material, which is this 90 percent air, 10 percent food-grade polymer filling that looks like a tangle of noodles. The Breathe-Thru Technology allows for the highest level of airflow so babies can breath and sleep safely. And, in a study done by an independent third party lab, Newton was found to be 17x more breathable than its competitors with a 97 percent lower suffocation risk.

It’s also chemical-free. The viscose cover that incapsulates the Wovenaire Core is natural, breathable and even machine-washable (you can just toss it in the bathtub and give it a good scrub). It’s Greenguard-Gold Certified, and it exceeds the highest industry emissions safety standards.

I was impressed straight out of the box. Now, I knew it wasn’t made of memory foam, but still I half expected it to have that sort of “need to prop it up and air it out for a few hours” smell. Something that suggested yes, it had been wrapped up in plastic, or at least obviously in transit. But nothing. Not a whiff. A huge relief. Add to that the fact that the mattress just looks luxe (with cloud-like quilting and coming in at 5.5-inches thick, it is) and I was already feeling like I had made a good choice.

My baby slept like…a baby. You know how you come to know your kid so well you just look at them, and you know things? I just knew she was comfortable from the very first night she slept on it. (Which was almost a full twelve hours with only one single wakeup for a midnight snack and a cuddle. And we had just moved into a new house, so she wasn’t familiar with the space. This is all facts.) I watched her like a hawk through the baby monitor and she hardly moved a muscle. Of course there could have been other factors at play: Maybe the temp was just right, maybe she was extra tired that day and could have slept on a rock, maybe she’s just “a good sleeper.” But after a dicey stint in a travel crib and the fact that she preferred napping on humans to bassinets for the better part of her babyhood (aka she’s not always THAT good a sleeper), I believe the mattress really does deserve the credit.

There are several options. I have the Original Crib Mattress ($300) in the Standard Size in white. Like I said, it’s 5.5 inches thick. But let’s say you absolutely can’t stand white. You may also choose from pink, blue or grey. And maybe 5.5 inches is too thick for your purposes—skip the Original and go for the Essential ($250), which comes in at 4-inches thick (still pretty substantial). And, if you’d rather forgo the extra layer of a mattress cover but you’re still concerned about wetness protection, you can opt for the Waterproof Crib Mattress ($350). Finally, if this all sounds great but you’re actually shopping for a bassinet mattress, check out the Mini ($200).

Final note: I feel really, really good about this mattress. So much so that I worry 100x less about her at night, even though she’s in a completely different room. The one drawback is that it’s definitely pricier than many competitors, but ever since that first night on her Newton Baby mattress, my daughter has kept up the (safe) deep sleeps and even added multi-hour naps into the mix. And I get better sleep myself because of it.

Seriously, who would have thought a mattress you’re not even sleeping on could give you that much more rest?