Should the baby sleep in our room if crying might disturb the neighbours?

[Merryclaire]

We’ve just bought a bedside crib with the intention that the baby will sleep in our room for 6 months or so, as per the recommended advice.
However, our room adjoins the house next door and I’m worried the baby will cry a lot in the night and cause problems with the neighbours.
The nursery is on the non adjoining wall, so after this period it should be less of an issue.
Our house is a small 2-bed semi and we can’t easily swap rooms.
Has this been an issue for anyone? This will be my first baby so I don’t really know how loudly they are likely to cry in the night, and I’m worried about putting them in the nursery from day 1.
Any insight? Thanks

Definitely follow the guidance. Your baby is unlikely to cry a lot if he or she is in with you- when they cry you wake up and give them a cuddle/feed.

You can’t increase your child’s cot death risk just to be polite.

Definitely keep in with you. Babies cry, it's just a fact of life, but personally we never had hours of crying overnight. Just some cries on wake-up and then silence as she fed mainly. But it's just normal daily noise and definitely not worth going against SIDs guidance for regardless.

Absolutely your baby should be in with you.

If your neighbours aren't willing to share a wall with a baby, they need to buy a detached house.

Babies don’t necessarily cry a lot. My two almost never cried. They wake up, get your attention, feed and go back to sleep. If yours has colic you can always go into another room if they are really screaming.

I was worried about upsetting the neighbours - fortunately the midwife intervened (as did the neighbours…) and told me not to be daft. Newborn cries are weak/quiet, and they’re easily and quickly soothed with milk and cuddles.

if it’s really bothering you, could there be a way for you both to sleep in the baby’s room? They need to be with you but it doesn’t really matter where, as long as it’s safe for them.

For what it's worth, I once lived in a flat underneath a couple with a newborn who said they hoped we weren't being woken up by the baby's crying.

As it happened we couldn't hear the baby crying but we could hear the parents' snoring and stomping on the hardwood floors with their shoes on.

Pardon my language, but fuck the neighbours! A crying baby is part of normal living and can therefore not be considered antisocial behaviour/ nuisance sounds. Some people will disagree and feel aggrieved by other people having children, but that's their problem, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Disclosure: we have the most miserable killjoy of a neighbour so I've looked into this in far too much detail...

Thanks - that’s reassuring to hear they hopefully won’t scream down the house at that stage. If they get colic I’ll have to cross that bridge when I come to it. I guess I could sleep on the sofa and have them with me in the living room.
We don’t have an amazing relationship with next door so don’t want to make it worse, but of course I’ll put baby’s health first. Just wondered if it was likely to be a problem.

Baby in with you for 6 months. Reduce the risk of SIDS. Buy neighbours ear plugs and a bottle of gin

Maybe I’m a horrible neighbour but I couldn’t care less if my neighbour can hear my newborn crying in the night. To be fair, he doesn’t cry that much but even so, his safety of being with us whilst asleep outweighs any concern I’d have for neighbours.