Baby next door crying non-stop!

lulu_92

This is only a brief story about it, I could go on for days!

We had new neighbours move in at the start of March. From what I can gather it was a family of three with one on the way. I spoke to the dad once as they were moving in and he seemed nice enough: a welcome change from our old neighbour.

Anyway, they moved in and after a week or so the new baby arrived. We only knew this because we could hear her crying. Initially it didn't bother us because we were very understanding when it comes to babies.

Over the following months the crying got worse. It became louder and more distressed. No matter where I was in my house I could hear it at the same volume, and it got to the point where I didn't know what to do. They also have a son who must be about 8 or 9 who likes to mimic the baby and scream loudly himself. If mum gets annoyed she will not hold back from screaming and swearing at the kid too!

They've been in the house nearly 6 months now. The crying hasn't seemed to get that much better and I'm at my wits end. I can't enjoy any of my time at home because the crying can be heard over everything except my vacuum cleaner (so I have really clean floors, which is a plus :rotfl:) as it is pretty much from 5:30pm until about 11pm, constantly.

What do I do? I don't feel like I could talk to them about it because the longer they've lived there, the more angry they seem!

thorsoak

lulu_92 wrote: »

This is only a brief story about it, I could go on for days!

We had new neighbours move in at the start of March. From what I can gather it was a family of three with one on the way. I spoke to the dad once as they were moving in and he seemed nice enough: a welcome change from our old neighbour.

Anyway, they moved in and after a week or so the new baby arrived. We only knew this because we could hear her crying. Initially it didn't bother us because we were very understanding when it comes to babies.

Over the following months the crying got worse. It became louder and more distressed. No matter where I was in my house I could hear it at the same volume, and it got to the point where I didn't know what to do. They also have a son who must be about 8 or 9 who likes to mimic the baby and scream loudly himself. If mum gets annoyed she will not hold back from screaming and swearing at the kid too!

They've been in the house nearly 6 months now. The crying hasn't seemed to get that much better and I'm at my wits end. I can't enjoy any of my time at home because the crying can be heard over everything except my vacuum cleaner (so I have really clean floors, which is a plus :rotfl:) as it is pretty much from 5:30pm until about 11pm, constantly.

What do I do?

If you are at your wits' end - just imagine how the poor parents must feel! Whilst I do feel sorry for you, I feel more for the parents and the baby!

You could ask if there is any way that you could give the parents a break .........

Cyberman60

Yet another argument for living in a detached property !!

Surely this is an incentive for people to get off their butts, work hard, earn high and buy the biggest property possible !!!

lulu_92

thorsoak wrote: »

If you are at your wits' end - just imagine how the poor parents must feel! Whilst I do feel sorry for you, I feel more for the parents and the baby!

You could ask if there is any way that you could give the parents a break .........

I did sympathise for a long time. I think I lost sympathy when my other neighbour who has a baby knocked on my door and apologised for his child being noisy in the night due to illness, and OH and I were confused because we didn't hear a thing from their side! (terraced houses)

I see these neighbours all the time and not once have they acknowledged us, even if we make the first step. I know they can hear us (logically if we can hear them, they can hear us, but we deliberately keep the noise down - this was something we learned from old neighbour)

Due to the point of me not knowing them very well and seemingly refusing to acknowledge those around them I would not be comfortable looking after their child (and if I were them I wouldn't want to leave my child with a stranger!)

Gigervamp

I wonder if the baby is suffering from colic. Doesn't that tend to be worse in the evening?

Whilst I can understand your side of things, it must be very tiring for them. I remember once when my son was a baby, he was crying for ages, late at night. Nothing I did would settle him, so I was doing the walking around the room, rocking him and trying to calm him down, when my neighbours upstairs banged on the floor!

I was so angry that I felt like banging on their door, handing my son to them and saying to them "Here, see if you can get him to sleep."

GwylimT

Welcome to my world! Our son had a medical condition which meant until around 11 months if he wasn't sleeping or eating he was screaming. He now had a tracheotomy so his crying is a lot quieter and less frequent. I know it's a nightmare, but it doesn't last forever.

If their little one is crying at night as well ear plugs are good, the foam type that expand in your ear are very good at cancelling noise. Our son was keeping our daughter awake who was only two at the time, we moved her bed to the other side of the room and placed a full double wardrobe on the shared wall which helped a lot with noise, we also got her an alarm clock which played various sounds (we used sea shore) when you are awake.

lulu_92

Cyberman60 wrote: »

Yet another argument for living in a detached property !!

Surely this is an incentive for people to get off their butts, work hard, earn high and buy the biggest property possible !!!

I know this is tongue in cheek, so I'll be nice

Yes this only gives us more incentive to. We're currently saving for our next house (OH owns this property) and we are looking at a 3 bed detached in the area for this reason.

We don't lack incentive, we just can't afford to move right now as I've started a new job recently (double my old salary though, although that was min. wage so can't brag) and we're waiting for OH to hear back from the millions of jobs he has applied to so we have more money for the future. We have a fair bit of equity in the house and when we match that with the cash deposit we will be able to buy the house we want. We don't want to buy a house for the sake of moving out of this one, we want to buy the house because we fall in love with it and can afford to do it properly.

lulu_92

Gigervamp wrote: »

I wonder if the baby is suffering from colic. Doesn't that tend to be worse in the evening?

Whilst I can understand your side of things, it must be very tiring for them. I remember once when my son was a baby, he was crying for ages, late at night. Nothing I did would settle him, so I was doing the walking around the room, rocking him and trying to calm him down, when my neighbours upstairs banged on the floor!

I have no idea if I'm honest. I would never bang on the door as it is not my right to, but I do think I have the right to have peace in my house.

I have always been more concerned for baby's welfare in all of this. Obviously the longer it goes on the concern grows but so does the frustration that it has gone on for this long!

My mum came round the other day and was in utter disbelief at how much noise was coming from their side!

GwylimT wrote: »

Welcome to my world! Our son had a medical condition which meant until around 11 months if he wasn't sleeping or eating he was screaming. He now had a tracheotomy so his crying is a lot quieter and less frequent. I know it's a nightmare, but it doesn't last forever.

If their little one is crying at night as well ear plugs are good, the foam type that expand in your ear are very good at cancelling noise. Our son was keeping our daughter awake who was only two at the time, we moved her bed to the other side of the room and placed a full double wardrobe on the shared wall which helped a lot with noise, we also got her an alarm clock which played various sounds (we used sea shore) when you are awake.

The crying isn't when we're trying to sleep, but it does mean that little things like trying to have a conversation with someone in the same room are drowned out (and I'm not even exaggerating)

There isn't any room to move the furniture around to block sound, and I'm not sure if baby has any medical conditions, just from the sounds of it it's almost like the parents are ignoring the cries.

amus

If you have concerns about the welfare of the child, which is what you seem to be hinting at, get in touch with social services.

lulu_92

amus wrote: »

If you have concerns about the welfare of the child, which is what you seem to be hinting at, get in touch with social services.

I was massively considering this. The only two things stopping me were that they would definitely know it was me and that would not be handled well, and that I have seen a health visitor see them and she seemed happy enough.

To be honest my first thought was that the mum has PND, but obviously I don't know her well enough to make judgement.

I don't want everything thinking I'm a horrible person because I can't stand this baby crying. I love children and can't wait to have my own someday - it's just frustrating when you're out of the house for 13-14 hours a day and all you hear when you get home is this constant noise with no signs of it being stopped.

maman

amus wrote: »

If you have concerns about the welfare of the child, which is what you seem to be hinting at, get in touch with social services.

I understand what you're saying but it seems an extreme reaction when OP hasn't even spoken to them about the baby's crying.


It sounds as if they're stressed and not coping well. The older child copying sounds like he's crying out for attention (literally). I think in that situation I'd at least try and speak to them not to complain but ask if there's anything I could do to help. Perhaps just a coffee and a chat.