apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

My sister was living with us and I kicked her out one night because she could not figure out how to open & close the door to her room using the two step process:
To Open:
1- sloooooowly turn the knob allll the way to the right.
2- quickly swing the door open so it doesnt have time to squeek.
To Close:
1- carefully swing the door closed quickly, stopping just shy of the latch.
2- turn the knob allll the way to the right and carefully close the door, then sloooowly bring the knob back to it's natural position.

...and I made her leave through the sliding back door. man, was she mad.

My husband and I have become absolute experts on leopard crawling out of the bedroom. We have a kid who literally wakes at the drop of a sock. He is our firstborn and we made the mistake of being quiet while he slept... Never made that mistake again... We could literally drop the house next to all the other kids and they wouldn't notice!!!

That's ridiculous, why creep around them, the more noises they get used to the less likely they become light sleepers. My baby boy sleeps through action movies on the surround sound, our dogs barking at the door bell, the vacuum cleaner, and everything else. Seems like whenever it's to quite he wakes up faster. It's not good to tip toe around them.

Boxerchick - it's not ridiculous- our daughter was surrounded by tons of noise from birth- we lived at my in-laws and she too slept through action movies and the vaccuum. When we moved into our home, we intentionally kept it noisy so she would continue to sleep through the noise. Funny thing is. she CAN sleep through noise, but when it's not noisy, things as silly as the door closing r toilet flushing automatically wake her.
I'd rather creep around & sacrifice my noisemaking comfort so she sleeps soundly. It's a moot point anyway. I'm pregnant with twins. Girl's gonna get used to the noise one way or another.

It's not ridiculous not everyone is blessed with a heavy sleeper from day 1. My firstborn would wake at the drop of a pin--we also made the mistake of not making noise from the begining. Light sleeper I guess. Hardwood floors do not help. I would go down in the basement or outside just to open a bag of chips!!

Agreed - despite best effots, some children are just light sleepers. I still am, but my parents say that when I was younger, I could hear them turning on a movie across the house and downstairs (with the volume at the lowest setting). I CAN sleep through anything, but there were and are certain things I just don't want to miss!

My kids are the same way...they're accustomed to noise, but if it's something they are intersted in, they're up and ready to see what's going on.

PS - as babies my kids slept through anything and everything. It's when they get older (and more intersted in what mom and dad are doing after they go to bed) that they develop these "light sleeping" habits. So beware, boxerchick ;-)

Agreed, definitely not ridiculous. We never meant to sneak around our firstborn, but with a really difficult sleeper, if it took us 1, 2, 3 hours to get the baby to sleep, you'd better believe we weren't going to be smashing pots and pans together.
Here's some of the crazy stuff we've done...
- Got some special screws to help fix our squeaky floors as much as possible.
- Walk around the squeaky parts as much as possible
- Nailed the stairs down more to prevent squeaking.
- Walk down the left side of the stairs that don't squeak
- Watch TV in bedroom with close captioning because it was too loud
- Turn off all the ringers in the house except for 1 phone which is almost in the basement.
- My husband comes in and leaves out the front door instead of garage because using the garage door is too noisy
- Removing the front doorbell - rather just disconnecting so it doesn't ring. We had too many episodes of needing to stop the UPS or FedEx guy from ringing the bell during naptime!
- When closing doors, do the handle opening thing posted by teeze in first comment above
-Now that it's summer, we always have left our door slightly open so we can hear our daughter in the mornings, but with the windows open, the door frequently slammed shut or would even just shut regularly and make a loud clicking. We put one of my tank tops looped over both handles to block the door from shutting.
- Don't run things like garbage disposal, food processor, coffee grinder.

Oh how cool to have Ohdeedoh referring to one of my posts :)
Our older son's sleeping 'problems' began seemingly out of nowhere... the first weeks of his life he would sleep in the living room during the day, with the TV on, us talking, people visiting... everything... but all of a sudden that was over and we had to start tip-toeing around him! Our younger son is slightly better but he is showing some signs of lighter sleeping these days... much to my horror :s
http://www.notyourgoddess.blogspot.com/

I must have not been clear, the Only thing I found absolutely ridiculous was the husband going out the living room window instead of the front door.

I am just lucky I guess, still learning as I go being a first time mother and all, but in my opinion if they wake up that easily then maybe they don't need to be asleep.

My oldest son (7) doesn't flush the toilet in the morning because he doesn't want to wake his brother up (2) but he is a good sleeper anyways.

I am just lucky I guess, still learning as I go being a first time mother and all, but in my opinion if they wake up that easily then maybe they don't need to be asleep.


Sorry, but that is such a first time mother thing to say. Just wait until your second child is the lightest sleeper but is so cranky without their morning and afternoon naps. Every child is different- just because they may be a light sleeper and wake at the drop of a hat (or the flush of a toilet or grind of a coffee maker or their brother's best attempt at being quiet) it doesn't mean that they don't need the sleep. It just means that they are a light sleeper.

I just wanted to thank everyone for the laughs! Our 1-year-old is a heavier sleeper now, but much of this was very familiar territory not so long ago!

we mixed it up with our daughter. we'd play loud music, i'd vaccuum, use the garabage disposal, or we'd have friends over with light background music, or sometimes pure silence. none of hard work mattered...she'd wake up at the littlest thing sometimes and sleep through the loud stuff sometimes.

we're now in the habit of having a humidifier going at all times and we have the same door routine as teeze PLUS the obstacle course of squeaky floorboards. ug.

Puh-leeze... our house is so noisy (floorboards, doors, neighborhood, etc.) that we just keep (several) fans running in our son's room to muffle the sounds. Unfortunately, he's in a room that's essentially a loft at the top of the stairs, so it has no door. Not ideal, but we have no other place for him. So far, so good!

Ah, I hadn't thought of getting some sort of a white noise thing going... not a bad idea! Has anyone tried one of those teddies that make a breathing sound or a heartbeat or some whale song thing?

http://www.notyourgoddess.blogspot.com/

http://notyourgoddess.blogspot.com/2009/07/light-sleepers.html

I was a horrible sleeper as an infant (My mother was nearly hospitalized for chronic sleep deprivation; the doctor recommended sedating me.) and I still am. As a newborn, I slept about 8 hours a day, never more than about 3 hours in a row.

I have found that white noise (I like mine mixed with ocean waves) is a godsend. Many white noise MP3's are available online for free or very low cost. Try a couple to find one you like. The one I really like I bought on a cd at a dollar store, and ripped to mp3 myself. The cd was called "Body and Soul Sounds: Relaxing Ocean Waves".

I have trained myself to sleep when it is playing, and to wake up when it ends. I fix the playlist so that it finishes 10 minutes before my alarm clock goes off. I am nearly always up before the alarm.

I begin the playlist with a chapter of an audio book; it's my own personal bedtime story. I see no reason why this wouldn't work for kids as well. Especially if you recorded a few stories in your own voice.

If there's no way to play mp3s in the room, then burn a cd, and put it on repeat. For me, however, waking up with the white noise still playing leaves me groggy.

ps; the white noise needs to be louder than you think...about the level of a vacuum cleaner or window air conditioner.

We tried to get a noise machine, but didn't see one at Target. Before we had the chance to look elsewhere, my smart husband realized we can just download tracks from iTunes/Amazon. They have all the jams! Crickets, static, etc.

Our favorite is the hour long track of waves crashing onto the beach. Best 99¢ we've ever spent!!