Don't Wake the Baby

The floors here are extremely creaky.  We noticed it immediately after we moved in.  The house isn't that old - maybe 25 years.  Yet upstairs, downstairs, in the bathroom or the hallways, the floor emits cries of strain whenever feet are upon it.  Of course, it is especially bad right outside of Emmie's room.  She can be a light sleeper, particularly when she is teething or something else is bothering her.  You try to walk by as lightly as possible, but inevitably, "Errrrk! Crack! Uggghhh" goes the floor.  "Waaah!" Goes the baby.

At least, Bruce, his mom, and I try to step as lightly as possible.  Bruce's father either doesn't try or is incapable of it.  He walks by, "like a walrus", quoth Bruce.  And it seems as if he needs to travel back and forth through the upstairs hallway even more than normal when Emmie is sleeping.  Then it sounds like this: "Pound! Pound! Pound!"

Often, Bruce and I will be in our room, being quiet, when we hear him approaching.  The noise registers on the baby monitor.  We'll exchange worried glances right before the baby starts to scream.  It almost never fails.  Now that Bruce's dad has this part-time job in the early mornings, it's practically a guarantee that come 3:30 a.m. when Dad has to go to work, he'll wake the baby.  It sucks.

Recently my in-laws saw an infomercial on TV for a miracle product that would eliminate the creakiness.  It had something to do with securing the floor to the joists. (Don't ask me what a joist is, exactly).  The way Bruce described it, the idea was to put a nail or screw into the beam in the floor, which would be covered by the carpet.  So they purchased it, watched the instructional video, and when I was at work one day, Bruce's dad spent several hours trying to fix the problem.  When I came home, I went upstairs to change my clothes.  "Crick! Crack!" went the the floor.

When I came back down, Bruce's mom beamed at me.  "Don't the floors seem better to you?"  It makes me a little sad to remember how proud she looked.

"Um, yeah," I conceded.  But they really didn't.

The baby continues to be awakened by the loud floors, usually because of Bruce's dad's stride.  Yesterday Bruce was going to put the baby to bed for a nap, and therefore asked preemtively, "Does anyone need anything from upstairs?  Because I'm going to put the baby down now, and when we walk by it tends to wake her up."  No, neither of his parents needed anything, thank you.

Then, twenty minutes later, one of them did.  "Waaah!" Went the baby.

Bruce and I have spent a lot of time being angry about this situation.  It's absolutely frustrating.  If we had our own house, we would probably tiptoe if we had noisy floors or wait to cross the hallway until after the baby arose.  The reality is that it's not our house.  His parents can do whatever they like.  And it must suck for them, too, to hear the baby cry as they pass.  Nobody likes to make Emmie upset.  We all love her.

This is another one of those dilemmas that won't go away until we do.  We have to accept it.  After all, it isn't hurting Emmie.  She either ends up going back to sleep, or one of us goes in to get her.  When we open the door, she always breaks into a smile.