Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Reason #529 to Move to a House

Last night as I was in bed at 12:30 a.m. listening to some man outside shouting as he walked down the street (I fondly call him "yeller" because he is often out there talking to himself, walking to the train), I was thinking, I'm really ready to move to a less busy street.

This morning, Ben's alarm sounded at 5:35 a.m. Unfortunately, the alarm not only woke Ben up, but the dog above us, who then jumped off the owner's bed (remember, he's a huge dog) and ran around the condo upstairs. This then woke up Eli, who cried in his crib until I reluctantly climbed out of bed at 6 a.m. (my policy is that anything before 6 is too early when he's healthy) And thus our day started off with a bang.

This picture was taken yesterday. When we were both in better moods (and more rested).

7 comments:

Heather said...

I thought we had escaped the noisy neighbors problem by moving into our neighborhood, but we didn't. We've been here for 10 months and our street is now on its third house being remodeled. That means for almost the entire 10 months, except when there is 2 feet of snow on the ground, there have been noisy construction vehicles, jackhammers, electric saws, and that annoying "beep, beep" when anything backs up. Maybe if we found a nice quiet cave somewhere . . .

Laura said...

I have a suggestion that was a LIFESAVER for us when we lived in Evanston. (We still use it here too!) It's called a Soundscreen, and the company that makes it is Marpac. There are all sorts of similar products out there, but this is a nice, simple, basic design that has various combinations of "sound" so you can get it just right for your living situation. It basically just creates white noise (like a fan or quiet blowdryer), effectively blocking out all the sounds that would wake up your baby/child. We still use ours every single day. I couldn't live without it. It's perfect for apartment/condo situations, and it worked wonders for us when we were living in the midst of a major home build across the street. Totally worth the $50!!! Check it out!

Sarah S said...

Laura, I love your suggestion! The only problem - we have a white noise machine, but it doesn't block out the noise above his room. Eli is a VERY light sleeper (he sometimes wakes up in the morning when Ben turns the bathroom light on to take a shower - somehow the little stream of light goes into Eli's room under the door and wakes him up - it's unbelievable). I think he would never sleep if he didn't have the sound machine, but it still doesn't block every noise.

UGH!!!!

Heather, I'm sorry you have construction going on near you - that is very aggravating!

Will and Natalie Giddens said...

I agree with anything before six being too early. When Everett was younger every now and then he'd be up and awake at like 5. I was so tired I would get him out of his crib, close the door to his room and just lay on the floor while he crawled around. Probably not the safest thing but I was desperate for a few more minutes of sleep!

Cami Severson said...

Thanks, Laura, for the advice on the Soundscreen. I have been meaning to get a white noise machine for a while, but never got around to researching one out. You made it easy and I just bought one from Amazon.com!

Lindsay said...

Don't you hate when any little noise will wake them up. I hope you got my messsage earlier today. When I walked by your place I saw that your car was gone. You must of been out and about. Hope the day is going better.

Shontz Family said...

i've put a fan in each of the kids' rooms and it seems to help a lot! i always feel so bad telling anthony to be quiet in the morning, especially since he is getting up to go work and provide for the fam and we all get to sleep in, but it is one thing that totally gets under my skin when he is loud! and i just lie there biting my lip praying my 3 babies don't wake up!! 6am...that's brutal!!