https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sat, 18 Apr 2026 01:12:21 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2057961 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 16:28:10 +0000 merriment 2057961@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I worried about having a baby in an apartment, but it was absolutely never an issue. I was really nervous at the beginning, but ultimately chilled out about it. On rare occasions, I worried more that sounds from other neighbors would bother LO, but that too was a nonissue. We have since moved to a house and man I miss apartment living. Particularly on snowy and rainy days, I miss the ability to just stroll across the hallway and hang out with friends and their babies! When DH traveled, it was also so nice to know that there were people immediately around (I always felt so safe). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2057950 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 16:18:06 +0000 Mrs. Toad 2057950@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I have lived in multiple apartments in the last 12 years. I have never had a problem with any of the other tenants. We have a 4 month old and he often cries for naps with his crib next to the apartment wall. The tenant on that side has never said anything to us. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2057947 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 16:14:15 +0000 bunnylove08 2057947@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We live in an apartment and we were not worried about neighbors. </p> <p>When DD had really bad colic we moved her into the living room because we hoped our upstairs neighbor and next door neighbor's bedrooms are not in the area. </p> <p>The crying for us does not bother us as neighbors but loud running does because it wakes up DD from her sleep sometimes. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2057912 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 15:51:35 +0000 catlady 2057912@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have lived below families with babies or young kids twice. Both times, we moved as soon as we could because the noise was unbearable. However, in both cases, it was actually the parents that made the noise that bothered us. They would be up super early (which I now understand!) and would do noisy chores like vacuuming at 6am on a Sunday. I think they were just generally loud people.</p> <p>We currently live in a townhouse with shared walls and I was so afraid that our neighbors would be bothered by LO, especially when she went through her awful sleep phases, but we keep her crib away from the shared walls and always use a ton of white noise, and our neighbors say they never really hear anything. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2057871 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 15:28:51 +0000 bhbee 2057871@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We had #1 while living in an old city apartment with zero sound proofing. We did try to keep her away from the shared walls when she might be crying (eg we quickly moved the changing table away from that wall). Thankfully she wasn't too difficult a baby. I think in apartments it is what it is. We got more complaints from our downstairs neighbor when we first moved in pre baby because she wasn't used to a couple and having noise x2. We could also hear one neighbor when she had sex, another's phone conversations, another singing to his baby ... just part of the deal. However DH was super happy when we moved to a house with no shared walls when we moved cross country! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2057833 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 15:06:42 +0000 Coffee-lover 2057833@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I have been living in the same very large apartment building for the last 8 years. Before at any given time, there may have been 4-5 families with a quiet baby/child at any given time (out of 300 apartments). Noise was never a problem.</p> <p>In the last 2 years a whole new population has moved in and at least 70% of the people living here have multiple small babies and toddlers in one bedroom apartments. </p> <p>The new people here are so rude and have no common curtesy. Our complex is shaped in a big rectangle with a large common area in the middle. Sound really echoes here. They will allow their children to scream and cry for 20 minutes at a time outside of other peoples windows or doors, until someone asks them to bring their child inside. If for some reason the crying child is inside they always have all their doors and windows open, so it does not muffle the sound at all. If people take their screaming kids inside and shut the doors and windows you cant hear them.</p> <p>Its a huge problem and there are always 10-15 screaming kids outside at any time. Management is trying to stay on top of it by warning people not to stand outside other peoples doors, and posting signs asking people to keep noise down and not gather in the center area. They put up flyers of all the parks in the area and said our apartments are not a park. </p> <p>Its very frustrating, but I think it is just a cultural thing with the new tenants. Oh well, when I have my baby I will remember to not stand outside of someone elses door, and to shut my windows and door when she is screaming for extended periods of time. Sorry for my vent. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2057539 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 13:04:10 +0000 MrsSCB 2057539@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I hear the baby and toddler who live next door sometimes. It's never loud enough to keep me awake, though, I mostly hear it as I'm going to bed or first thing in the morning. And I much prefer it to people sitting out on their balconies playing the bongoes at 4 a.m. (which has happened...) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2057537 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 13:02:24 +0000 cascademom 2057537@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We live in a condo since before LO was born. When he was colicky, our upstairs and downstairs neighbors were really cool about it. Both of them would blast music to muffle it. With our neighbors, it was more of an understanding thing. When we did CIO, we posted a note and sent text messages about it. There's a couple in the garden unit with a baby, so the first floor unit hears a baby and a toddler now. Fortunately, he's very nice and laid back being the only single, childless guy in the building. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2056949 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 06:44:33 +0000 hotchildinthecity 2056949@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I've lived in apartments for a dozen years now so i've heard all kinds of sounds, including babies. It's part of apartment living! I've never complained about anybody honestly and I don't think anyone has complained about us.</p> <p>When we first brought Jae home, I made a little gift basket and a note for my next door neighbor, explaining that he was scared and jet lagged and there might be some crying. She in turn left us a lovely note and gift!</p> <p>I would make the effort maybe to bring a screaming baby into an area that doesn't border someone's bedroom. For example, jae's room borders my neighbor's living room so she said she never hears him. But if it shared a wall with her bedroom, I would make the attempt to soothe him in the living room or something. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2056944 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 06:31:33 +0000 SleepyMonkey 2056944@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We live in a condo too and i think our neighbors baby was colicky. But we only heard her thru the door - the cries would travel down the hall and we could hear her cry. Our walls are concrete so no sound passes thru them. I felt bad for them but it didnt bother me. Babies cry. I was just happy at the time that it wasnt us! We were childless at the time. I figure if they can hear our kids cry now, theyll understand. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2056936 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 06:03:27 +0000 Anagram 2056936@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We live in a condo building that is the same as an apartment building, but it's a newer building built in 2005, so the sound proofing is actually really good. We have a nail salon directly below us and I've never heard a bit of noise from them and they say they can't hear us; I only hear my upstairs neighbor if they are hammering or drop something large, never just footsteps.</p> <p>And our next door neighbors have a piano and one of them plays beautifully... But I only hear it if I'm in the hall taking the trash to the chute.</p> <p>We live in a steel beam, concrete wall building..: total pain for drilling into the walls to hang stuff but great for less noise I guess! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2056898 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 02:58:23 +0000 Pumuckl 2056898@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We also live in an apartment and we can hear our upstairs neighbor sometimes. Our downstairs neighbor says she can only hear the LOs if they are really wailing. </p> <p>We also lived in apartment before where we could hear the toddler living in it running around. It never bother me much - way better than the porn like sex noises we got from the predecessors at 3am :silly: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2056896 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 02:50:24 +0000 lamariniere 2056896@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have always been in apartments. I've never heard other babies and in our current apartment (which is 120ish years old) neighbors tell me they DON'T hear my two LOs, which surprised me. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2056852 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 00:32:41 +0000 nana87 2056852@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I worry about the noise but no one has said anything. And I think my dogs are probably more annoying! We're moving next month to another apt and I worry about whether the sound will carry more </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2056819 Thu, 05 Feb 2015 23:31:01 +0000 lady grey 2056819@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@smith: This won't help the walls but I recently heard from another mom that these rug pads did a great job muffling sound for a downstairs neighbor.</p> <p><a href="http://rugpadusa.com/eco-comfort-memory-foam-rug-pads.html" rel="nofollow">http://rugpadusa.com/eco-comfort-memory-foam-rug-pads.html</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2056812 Thu, 05 Feb 2015 23:22:41 +0000 Corduroy 2056812@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We were in an apartment with a colicy baby. We never received a complaint but I always felt bad. When DD was little she was only soothed with a vacuum. We only ran the vacuum during the witching hour which meant more crying in the evening. I assumed the vacuum was worse than the crying but I never asked a neighbor.</p> <p>Months later we did CIO. I doubt my neighbors noticed that because LO cried so much anyway (every time she fell asleep and every time she woke up). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2056775 Thu, 05 Feb 2015 22:41:57 +0000 spaniellove 2056775@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We lived in a condo for a short time with a neighbor who had a baby, and I could hear the baby crying across the wall in their living room. Honestly it wasn't nearly as annoying as the other neighbor who dropped kettlebells on her wood floor! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2056765 Thu, 05 Feb 2015 22:28:27 +0000 mrsjazz 2056765@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We live in an apartment. I never worried about our LO crying when she was a baby, I feel like her cries are worse as a toddler. We never did CIO because it wasn't for us but we have definitely tried it and felt horrible about the constant crying and tantrums from our toddler that would last forever.</p> <p>Our walls are so thin I can hear my upstairs neighbor snoring sometimes. Ha. So I try not to worry too much about my LO. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2056761 Thu, 05 Feb 2015 22:25:25 +0000 hilsy85 2056761@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have always lived in apartment buildings. Hearing your neighbors is a fact of life. I have never been bothered by it, nor have I ever heard anything from our neighbors that implies that they are bothered. If you KNOW that you have thin walls and you KNOW your neighbors can hear your colic-y baby/baby in the midst of sleep training, and you have a small building, it might be nice to give a peace offering (baked goods, or even a warning). but I don't think it's necessary and we have never done that. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apartment-living-babies#post-2056747 Thu, 05 Feb 2015 22:12:15 +0000 smith 2056747@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>For you apartment-dwellers, how has it been having a baby in your building? Are you worried your LO's cries are disturbing your neighbors, especially during the night? </p> <p>DH and I are TTC and live in a vintage apartment that muffles NO sound - sometimes, our upstairs neighbors walking across their apartment wakes us up! Considering buying before baby, but single-family housing in our city is hard to find and crazy expensive. Likely will deal with shared walls, floors and ceilings no matter what!</p> <p>On the flip side, have any of you lived in an apartment and heard a crying baby through the walls? Was it annoying, or just a fact of life? </p>