To make the neighbours babysit

[Ritatheryvita]

Background: Dd is 8 months old. Her sleep is awful. She really fights naps and sleep. Breastfeeding and Co-sleeping no longer works. Last night I couldn't get her to sleep until 11pm having tried to put her down at 6.30pm when she was clearly tired. She'd had a total of a 20 minute nap all day.

Today she napped at 8am for 45 minutes - yay! Then put her down again at 12 and she fell asleep within a few minutes - double yay! Then our next door neighbour got out his chainsaw and started hacking away at his apple tree so she's now had a 10 min nap and is completely wired. This is it now, she'll get no more sleep until bedtime. I have to take dd1 to the Dr's for 2pm which is a 20 minute walk away and she will talk the entire way there and back thus rendering it impossible for her sister to sleep.

So, would I be unreasonable to take the baby next door and ask them to deal with her for the rest of the day because she's going to be absolutely miserable all afternoon and, yet again, dd1 will have to be completely ignored whilst I deal with the baby.

(FYI - neighbour knows the baby's sleep is awful because they have commented on hearing her cry and I told them about how crap her sleep is. They know I'm at home and I was putting her down for a nap at 12 because they spoke to me at 11. 50 when we were in the garden and I told them I was going in to put her down for a nap!!)

Haven’t RTFT but if I was your neighbour and not a dick, and it wouldn’t have interfered with anything else I had planned, I’d have waited a few hours til you’d gone out. It’s nice to be nice.

I feel for you. Mine was similar and all of a sudden the go to of sleeping in the pram ( when nothing else worked) stopped working.

I hated getting advice from people with good sleepers but

• trying a very strict routine of milk and story before each nap and bedtime and sticking to maximum awake times seems to have helped but could just be coincidence.

- Have you tried a snooze shade on the pram and a white noise machine you can hang on the side.

Sorry if this advice is annoying I know how it feels. It does get better.

How was your neighbour even to know your baby was napping at that time??

Your now the second person to ask this today. It's because I told them I was putting her down for a nap. I say this in my very first post. This information is the whole point of this thread. Had they used the chainsaw without the knowledge that I was putting the baby down for a nap I wouldn't have been so annoyed.

I don't think there's anything else for me to add now. Thank you for everyone's comments, good and bad - sleep training of some kind is definitely required.

You're

I agree whether they knew or not doesnt make them obliged not to do something noisy in the middle of the day, yes inconsiderate as they knew but they dont have to agree to, and is the truth harsh or not its the truth. Yes you maybe sleep deprived; who isnt, unfortunately for my self and every other mother in the world it's the choice we make and we have to find other ways to eleviate the difficulty of raisng children around people who have free will.

I don’t think you are being unreasonable. People are very selfish these days. They should understand that a baby’s sleep is more important than a tiny tree which can be sorted out at any time. I wouldn’t let them babysit - they sound totally ill equipped to look after a child!! But you should give them a piece of your mind. I’m angry on your poor baby’s behalf!

Aridane cutting an apple tree with a chainsaw in the middle of August isn't remotely necessary - it's the opposite of necessary.

My point is that many people on this thread seem proud and defiant about their god-given right to be shitty inconsiderate neighbours as long as the person they're negatively impacting is the mother of a small child who they can teach a lesson in humility.

I don't have a baby and never will again but I am really shocked by just how very gleefully so many people have posted to put the boot in and often to say they would also make a point of never being considerate unless legally obligated to be.

I'm glad it's not my experience of living in a community at any rate.

My babies would have slept through the chain saw noise. They would have slept through someone chainsawing their cot apart whlist they were in it. You neighbours might not have out 2 and 2 together and realised this was going to cause a problem.

Yabu. I do understand why, it is very hard with a baby who won't sleep, you have my sympathy. My friend had twins one slept like a dream the other never slept, they're 6 now and you can tell the non sleeping twin, she has so much energy.
Sometimes it's a personality trait.

You must be knackered, i had a similar non sleeper and the rage and fury when neighbours woke dc was real.

No they didn't have to work around you. But it goes both ways, and you don't have to be a particularly considerate neighbour yourself for a while until you feel better. Might not be popular, nor will it make your baby sleep, but might give you some feeling of control!