Hi there everyone, I was looking for a bit of help and some practical steps I can take to help me out a bit here, because I don't want to be unreasonable about the whole situation, I really don't.
I'm 32 weeks pregnant and just moved into a lovely new house with my DH. Everything is perfect, except for one little thing... The local town band.
They practice in the building directly behind our house from 7pm until 10pm Tuesdays and Fridays. To be honest, when we viewed the place I didn't even know what it was. I had a quick look at the building but it didn't have any signs on saying what it was used for, and the whole building is so old and ramshackle I thought it must be unused. More fool me, I know I should've probed a bit more. When they are practising, it is really, really loud and the percussion vibrates through the house and closing the doors and windows doesn't make a lot of difference. We certainly can't make use of the back garden during these times because you have to raise your voice to be heard.
My main worry however, is that my DS's bedroom sits at the back of the house, and you can hear the band quite loudly in there. Because it is a practice session, they obviously start and stop suddenly and I'm worried it'll startle him and stop him from sleeping. We thought of putting him in his moses basket in our room at the front of the house with the doors closed for the practice times, but it makes no change. I went to bed early last Friday because I was feeling poorly, but I genuinely couldn't get off to sleep because of the noise. I'm actually a really deep sleeper once I get going as well!
Obviously, they were there before us; this is a new build little cluster of houses and asking them to move is hardly an option. Could they possibly be entitled to some kind of soundpoofing for their building? They leave the doors and windows wide open at the moment because of the heat, and it is a small room they practice in so it must get quite hot. Perhaps because they are a community thing, they would be able to get some kind of grant? Or, alternatively are there steps I could take to soundproof my baby's room, at least? Who would I go about contacting for help with this? Would it be unreasonable to ask them to move practice times to slightly more sociable hours? 10pm is really rather late, I feel and a few of them hang about outside afterwards talking, which you can also hear quite clearly.
I really have a lot of time for these types of things; I was in my local town band when I was younger and it gave me a lot in the way of confidence. I still speak to some of the people I made friends with there and I absolutely loved it. I think it's a shame that these things seem to be dying out. I've seen them at various community events and there are a lot of children and young people involved. I genuinely think it's a good thing for them, and I don't want to upset anyone... at the same time, I've got to strike up a bit of a compromise to help myself as well.
If you can help me with this, it would be fantastic, thankyou! 
xx