Do you find earplugs invaluable?

[BearMama]

I am horrendously intolerant of noise and can happily sit all day with TV or radio on with just my thoughts.
Yes at 39 weeks I am about to get a rude awakening I know!
Sometimes I cant even bear DP crunching crisps/snoring/coughing without putting in earplugs.
What I want to know is - how many of you parents use earplugs to lessen noise of crying babies/screaming toddlers etc?

Do you find they take the edge off the "shrillness" and let you cope better?

This is not a wind-up BTW!

I kick the bed and blame restless legs if he wakes up and asks whats wrong - anything to give me a minute to get back to sleep.
I do better if I get to sleep and leave him reading because he will disturb me getting into bed.

DD is 18 months and I use them. She often cries out/whimpers in the night and I'm such a light sleeper that I wake up every single time, even when she resettles herself. I use them just to muffle the smaller ones! DD was the noisiest newborn ever when asleep, to the extent that DH slept in our room with her and I slept in the spare room, and I just went in when she needed a feed (bf).

Earplugs here EVERY night since son was a newborn...he slept like a pack of snorting pugs at first. He is now one, so of course been in his own room for ages...I have the baby monitor on lowest sensitivity and lowest volume and I still hear absolutely everything that needs to be heard.

I am a much lighter sleeper since having a baby, and I just find that the earplugs help me to get a deeper sleep as I am not bothered by street sounds, a flushing loo, footsteps, rain, strange hotel rooms etc etc. and I really mean it when I say that I spring to life the moment my son has something to say!

i love my earplugs at nighttime. I sleep so much better with them.

I dont wear them during the day unless its a long car journey, but I do have sensory issues with noise, and my eldest who is autistic has ear defenders for when he needs them.

There have been a few times I put on my ear defenders when DD was very small, when I had one on those 'just put them down safely in their cot and take 5 minutes' moments. I could most definitely still hear her, but it took the edge off the screaming. Particularly useful when she was going through a stage of turning and screaming right in my ear too.
So not necessarily invaluable, but certainly useful. She's 12mo now and I haven't needed to used them for 4 or 5 months.

It sounds as if you have some sort of auditory processing problem. I have hyperacusis and find things like rustling bags ticking clocks really loud. I struggle to hear in loud places.