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Thin Walls

It's odd waking up to the voice of a stranger.  The walls are really thin in this house and I am often woken up by my neighbors.  Some nights it's in the wee hours of the morning that I'm woken up by one of the children crying.  It's happened on more than one occasion at around 2-3AM and I can only imagine it's nightmares waking the child up and I wish I could say that their mother is quick to go to them, but it often takes a while before the crying stops.  Some days it's the voice of one of the woman calling out to the children that wakes me and some mornings I'm actually woken by the sound of their alarm clock (the other day that happened at 5:45 in the morning). 
This morning, I woke up to a voice calling out 'Come on you two' as if it was coming from the same room.  It was 6AM and I wanted to cry since I didn't get to sleep until around 2:00 this morning.  I keep earplugs next to my bed, but don't like to sleep with them in because it causes my ears to ache after a while.  So, instead I wait to hear them and hope if I put them in while I'm groggy enough I'll get back to sleep.  I'm a really light sleeper though and have to say that once I'm awake, I don't often get back to sleep.
Today, I'm really tired.  I want to nap, but am afraid if I do, I won't sleep tonight or worse, I'll just be woken up by the children.  The little devils don't stop all day.  One of them throws temper tantrums several times a day that involve screaming at a pitch that should break glass, and loud banging that I can only guess is caused by them stamping their feet or throwing themselves on the floor over and over again (I hear the screeching as I type).  Again, I wish I could say the mother was quick to put an end to the noise, but they just leave the child to it and it usually lasts at least 20 minutes.  I think I'm developing a tick...
I try keeping the TV pretty loud throughout the day and I've also invested in radios for the kitchen and bedroom so I can try to drown the noise out when in those rooms.  When we get back to the states, I'll be looking into getting a few white noise machines to help block the noise because I don't know how much longer I can take this.  It's a really lovely house, but apparently not well built.  The lease is up in about 5 months and I've told my husband to not be surprised if I want to move again.  The only thing that worries me is that you just never know with these sort of houses if you're going to have the same problem again as soon as you move.  I just didn't think it was possible to have walls this thin.  We might as well just all move in together because it's as if we share a house already!  Then again, I never hear a thing from the people on the other side of us, so maybe it has something to do with the calibre of people you have living next to you as well.

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Tara said…
We had the same problem in our first apartment. I would hear the neighbors above and the neighbors next to us as though they were in the same room. I never complained because I didn't want to be the bitch next door! Once our daughter was born and the noise woke her I couldn't take it anymore, we moved shortly after!
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