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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be furious that neighbour put letter through door at 5am complaining about dd crying..?

470 replies

cheaperthantherapy · 27/09/2011 09:03

i need some perspective I think... Am 12 weeks pg, so hormones contributing to irrational emotions -AIBU....

We moved to new house in July, semi detached in London. Poor dd, 14 mo, has been unsettled since move and has woken up average twice a night crying. I soothe and put her back down within 15 mins. The past week she's been teething and waking screaming 6 times a night. So I have get in with me to quickly calm and try teething gel.

Last night 5am our neighbour (mid 20s woman) put a letter through our door saying she is fed up with dd crying, she has gone to doc for medication, and asking if she needs to move to get sleep...

My reaction was to write a note back suggesting in an offended and grumpy tone that she clearly has more issues if she needs to see doc because of crying baby and recommended she buy earplugs (I attached a packet of ear plugs for her).

Dh didn't let me put the note in her door - but am still fuming... AIBU?

OP posts:
MissVerinder · 27/09/2011 10:19

Oh dear.

I understand why you are seething, I truly can.

Go round and speak to her- explain that you're not getting any sleep either (!) but here's these handy earplugs as a present for you.

I think moving the furniture to act as a sound damper is a great idea. Tell her you're doing this and everything you can to try and help her.

TakeThisOneHereForAStart · 27/09/2011 10:20

I remember how desperate I felt when LO was just a few weeks old and crying at night. He had colic and reflux, and on very bad nights he could cry for a couple of hours.

I tried everything. We went to the doctor and got medicine, we changed feeding methods and bought Dr Brown bottles, we did baby massage, we had stuff for his bath, bought one of those awful colic pillows that massage the baby (they do NOT work), we held him in the positions the HV showed us, you name it and we tried it.

He still cried a lot and when he did go to sleep we were afraid to put him down because he would wake at the slightest movement.

I've spent nights trying to sleep while sitting propped up in the corner of the room, holding DS and terrified to move in case he woke, getting about 20 minutes sleep at a time before he disturbed and and the whole routine started again, cringing every time he made a noise because DH was being an arse very unhelpful and complaining about his need for sleep and moaning about being woken all night.

But even though I felt desperate and useless and very alone and frustrated, DS was my baby and I think that made it a bit better for me than if I had been a neighbour listening through the wall. No matter how bad things got, and at times I felt angry and frustrated at DS for "fighting sleep" all the time, at least I was getting all the good bits of being his mum too.

It must be very frustrating to listen to and be disturbed by a crying baby that isn't even yours.

I was lucky, my neighbour was an elderly lady with several adult children, lots of grandchildren and even some great-grandchildren. She was 85 and still took care of the three youngest, one only 11 months old at the time, three days a week. When we went to apologise and ask if she was being disturbed she told us that she was used to crying babies and pointed out that she was going slightly deaf. She ended up being the most sympathetic and helpful person we turned to for advice. And just as she convinced

I'm normally the first to be on the side of the parent and baby, because babies do cry and it's almost in their job description to keep people up at night. But it's not the fault of the neighbours and if it's an ongoing thing, as frequently as six times a night, then I think the parents do need to accept that not everyone is going to be happy about it or suffer in silence indefinitely.

You really do need to apologise (if not for the baby crying than for the fact that the crying is disturbing your neighbour) and try to find a solution that doesn't include earplugs.

To be fair to her, your daughter has been crying a couple of times a night for a few weeks now. At the start she was probably thinking that your daughter was unsettled by the move but would calm down in a few weeks. Instead she's crying even more than ever and without an explanation or an apology your neighbour has no idea why. She's probably thinking that this will never stop and if she knows you are pregnant again she's be imagining how much worse it will become when there are two babies to cry through the night.

Even if you feel you don't owe her an apology, you owe her an explanation and a promise that you will do your very best to ensure she isn't disturbed too much from now on.

BuckBuckMcFate · 27/09/2011 10:20

My suggestion of moving downstairs is because it stops DS3 disturbing DP, 3DC and the four people who live next door. DS2 is a light sleeper and wakes up in full alert ready to go mode even if it's 3am.

And I get to watch 24 hour news which is the only way I keep up to date on what's happening in the world.

My DS regularly wakes up every hour. Moving to a part of the house that doesn't disturb 8 sleeping people sounds like a sensible idea to me.

OP what are your thoughts on the situation now? Pretty mixed reaction on here, has the thread altered your view on it at all?

TakeThisOneHereForAStart · 27/09/2011 10:21

That should read "And just as she convinced us that things would get better, they did."

SoupDragon · 27/09/2011 10:22

" and your neighbour has handled it very badly..."

The op has also handled it badly. The baby has been crying since July and screaming for a week yet she hasn't gone to apologise to this neighbour? She's managed to apologise to the other one. I'm not sure which is the attached neighbour and which is on the other side but I had assumed the note writer was the attached one.

StrandedBear · 27/09/2011 10:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MollyTheMole · 27/09/2011 10:23

YANBU to be upset. Babies cry, we try our best to stop them but sometimes theres nothing you can do.

But I wouldnt post a note back through and I think you need to apologise and explain that you will try your best to improve the situation.

I feel a bit sorry for the neighbour, but Im afraid it I was you once I apologised Id be a bit about it.

Quintessentialist · 27/09/2011 10:25

I am sorry. I am haveing a bit of an unsympathetic morning and a bit of a shitty attidute. My apologies. I shall leve the thread and focus my happy thoughts on Ham and Mango.

OP. Good luck with your irrate neighbour and your wakeful child.

TotemPole · 27/09/2011 10:26

I think she needs to talk to her face to face and discuss the layouts of both houses and try to come to a solution that works(as well as it can) for everyone.

Is now a good time to mention sticking egg cartons on the walls to sound proof? Blush

Last time I mentioned it on MN, someone laughed at me. :(

perfumedlife · 27/09/2011 10:26

I feel for you OP. It's very stressful. I agree that the way forward is to put a face to the name, see her and apologise/explain the situation and that you are trying. Maybe the GP could help with the teething pain?

At the end of the day, unless we are landed gentry, we do tend to have to live alongside each other and let live. I remember a downstairs neighbour complaining the week we moved in. We were waiting on the furniture arriving, still cleaning/decorating so the flat had an echo it was so bare. She moaned she could hear our chats coming down the fireplace Confused I was all set to grovel and never speak again, my dp (at the time) told her that living in a tenement, this was all part of life's rich tapestry. Perhaps if seh could afford it she could move out to a detatched house in the country? He was a cheeky bugger right enough. Grin

But he had a point.

Allboxedin · 27/09/2011 10:27

Oh I so sympathise - we live in a top floor flat. I have a 24 mponth old dd and am 37 weeks pregnant. DD has had her canines coming through the past few days and has been terrible at night. I feel awful about it but I genuinely can't do anything about it.
Anyway after putting up with weeks of noise from downstairs while they ripped out the flat and we had builders banging around and drilling all day I don't feel so bad but I swear the person downstairs wasn't as friendly last time we met in the hallway!!

Personally I always sleep with earplugs, can't sleep without them but I also know how irritated and grouchy I get if I don't get enough sleep. I guess some people deal with it better than others.
I would go and chat to her and explain why its happening and that you are trying your best to calm her down.
Could you try and give your dd some calpol or somcthing? Also my dd has allergies and eczema so I give her Piriton which also makes them a bit sleepy - not suggesting you drug your child to sleep but it may help calm her down!

Allboxedin · 27/09/2011 10:29

Also is there carpet in your dd's room ? If they are wood floors the sounds will be twice as bad, so possibly pad it out with a rug or something if there is no carpet??

MrsPlugThePlumber · 27/09/2011 10:30

FWIW OP, I found CalProfen to be effective where Calpol didn't make a bit of difference. If your child can have it, give it a crack!

JarethTheGoblinKing · 27/09/2011 10:30

Sod the teething gel, get some baby neurofen. If she's waking 6 times a night she must be in pain and teething gel just doesn't cut it some times.

Bathsheba · 27/09/2011 10:31

I definately think that whatever pain relief strategies you are putting in place aren't working, or there is an additional underlying problem.

Being up screaming 6 times a night simply is not normal teething.

Apologise to your neighbour - let her know that as its your first you didn;t know that it wasn't normal, that you have now spoken to others and realise it isn;t normal and you are are going to address the situation

JarethTheGoblinKing · 27/09/2011 10:33

(neurofen can be better than calpol as it's a better anti-inflammatory so eases the teething a bit more - in our case anyway)

unless your DD is asthmatic, of course.

Allboxedin · 27/09/2011 10:35

Jareth can you not use it in asthmatics?

TheBride · 27/09/2011 10:35

Do not escalate it whatever you do, simply for practical reasons. She can make life harder for you than you can for her because she can start playing loud music at 1am when she comes in from the pub. You can't.

fit2drop · 27/09/2011 10:36

Agree with Add message frasersmummy Tue 27-Sep-11 09:36:18
and Witchofthenorth Tue 27-Sep-11 09:50:26

OP is hardly making her child cry deliberately.
Fuck apologising for a babys crys.
Neighbour should be more sympathetic to the babys' needs .
I doubt very much that the neighbour has been to GP specifically for this, she sounds like she is just trying to be dramatic about how its affecting her, to be fair if people went to docs over every night crying baby the surgeries would be full.
Ridiculous.
I would smile sweetly at neighbour and say I have passed your message on to the baby.

TheBride · 27/09/2011 10:38

Disagree- if you're waking your neighbour up 6 times a night, you should apologise. OP could easily have pre-empted the situation that has now arisen.

Empjusa · 27/09/2011 10:39

"I doubt very much that the neighbour has been to GP specifically for this"

You doubt someone would go to the GP after months of not sleeping? Really?

kerrymumbles · 27/09/2011 10:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

kerrymumbles · 27/09/2011 10:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SpringHeeledJack · 27/09/2011 10:42

oh ffs

the OP said pages ago that she was going to apologise

stop nagging her on here. She's also sleep deprived. And upset already

YareallBVU

teafanatic003 · 27/09/2011 10:42

A baby crying is uncontrollable she really could just stick her fingers in her ears or put the tv on if we are being realistic here,

medication? all sounds a bit melodramatic

I wouldn't post that note however IO would repost her note and make a quick point 'i'm sorry for the inconvienience but a baby crying is uncontrollable however a grown adult posting unpleasant letters at unsociable hours IS controllable ...in future I'll be contacting the police.

(you might not actually do it but you've been firm)

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