first time mum advice

[SianandTony]

Just wondering if anyone else lives in a flat with their kids?

Im in a victorian house conversion and the people upstairs seem to sleep all day and are running around upstairs talking loudly at night. My husband thinks that newborns will get used to this noise and sleep through. but I have my doubts?

[mrs.lotte]

I dont live in a flat but suspect that the people upstairs will be more disturbed by your new born than vice versa. Whenever my totally lovely next door neighbour has a late nighter i feel briefly irritated then remember that a. I am pining for my lost youth and b. she has significant credit in the bank for nights of wailing, 6pm bellowing (from me) and early morning wheels on the bus sessions.

You will probably be so tired that you wont notice the night time running around.

Good luck!

Edited to say; I'm sorry if that sounded unsympathetic, it wasn't meant to. I also know what it's like to have troublesome neighbours. When I had my first we lived next door to an elderly couple and their grown up daughter who all had mental health problems; lots of loud praise be style singing at all hours and pervading pong around the house. However when bub was born i was too dis-orientated to notice and they were lovely to him; forever telling me how handsome he was (which of course I knew already but a little confirmation went a long way!)

[KatsuQueen]

Hi I wouldn't worry about it. We live in a flat too (albeit on the top floor) on a main road and MiniKatsu has never had any problems sleeping through the sirens, people shouting outside etc. At least you don't have to feel guilty if your baby decides that night-time sleep is for losers. My baby seems to be on the random ear-piercing screams stage...

[snss75]

We live in a ground floor flat, near train station & a big road and often have trains, fire engines and what not passing the house and my son sleeps through it all :)). We've lived there since he was a baby and no noise bothers him, not even the upstairs drunken girls ringing our doorbell at 4am when they couldn't get the front door open (woke me up for sure (6))... I think the best thing you can do knowing that your neighbors may be noisy etc. is not to teach your baby to sleep in complete silence at all and tip toe around when he/she is asleep and he/she will soon sleep through anything! I think your husband is right, babies are usually good that way, the sort of sudden loud noises are more likely to startle/wake them than e.g. talking.

[standswithfist]

I have nightmare neighbours living upstairs who were partying hard every weekend over this summer. It culminated a few weeks ago when they put on banging music at 3am again (our blinds and windows were shaking) and woke up ministandswithfist twice. I asked them to turn it down, they didn't asked again they didn't so I called the police and the council. The music finally stopped at 5am when the police turned up. Last weekend they were quiet. I don't mind noise but if they are going to party at all hours and wake my baby up then something had to be done. Other than that she is used to city life noises including foxes mating, cats fighting, sirens etc. I meant to say we life in a downstairs flat. They have also woken her up when they run in and bang the front door and their front door. bit annoying but living in flats will do that.

[SianandTony]

Hi mrs lotte: a couple of people have said the same thing that our kid might be a screamer and annoy our neighbours just as much so its a fair comment.

stands with fist. luckily, there is no problems with regards to loud music or TV's just lots of loud walking and talking. one of them tends to slam the shared front door more so than the others. im trying to look on the bright side i think at least i dont have to get a pram up stairs as im on the ground floor and we have a nice garden for her in the summer...

[sunbob]

Good luck SianandTony, we were fine with a similar experience. When I was expecting we had very noisy downstairs neighbours, who specifically played music in the room below what was to be the nursery. I was rather worried and a bit down that I wouldn't be able to provide the lovely peaceful space I dreamt of for baby. However, like others have said, when she came along we were so out of it that we didn't notice! Also, my little one didn't notice; the only thing that really disturbed her was something like me sneezing if she was on my lap asleep. Luckily the neighbours moved out later (now we're just waiting to see turns up next!!)