Wall-to-wall peace and quiet

When I was in high school, I read All the King's Men and was most fascinated by the main character's (Jack's) periods of "Great Sleep." These were phases in his life where he was basically unable to deal (and possibly depressed), and either slept all the time or just plain idled the days away until he snapped out of it.

Since moving into our new place, I feel like we're coming out of a Great Sleep and the most tell-tale sign for me is that we are all sleeping better. The last year seems to have been characterized by kids who would get out of bed a thousand times after being tucked in to ask for water or complain about growing pains or to whine about being too hot or to see what we were doing. Getting them to bed most nights was a chore. By morning, both of them would be in our bed and I'd be woken up far in advance of my alarm by a tiny fist to the dome or by two girls quietly fighting about who gets to "lie next to Mamma."

Our new apartment is carpeted, which means it is quiet. Really quiet. It is so quiet you'd think we lived in the country, not an urban complex with 12 other units around us. We've always lived in houses and apartments with hardwood floors. In San Francisco, carpet can be the kiss of death for an apartment. Unless the building or location is stellar, good luck renting that!

I love the ease of care of hardwood floors especially when you have kids or pets, but man, I never realized just how loud and echoey they were until now.  Our house is so quiet that we can watch a Jerry Bruckheimer action film at a maximum explosion volume and we won't wake the girls. It is so quiet that the girls can be fighting over their Groovy Girls in their bedroom and I can't hear them in the kitchen. (Groovy, indeed!)  And I have to say that waking up to soft carpeting underfoot feels pretty dang luxurious.

Carpeting has done wonders for our sleep. (And maybe the pool has, too.) The girls crash hard at bedtime, sleep all night (even Wallie who usually gets up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom), and I have to wake them up in the morning. That hasn't happened since, like, ever.

I pad to bed, fall right to sleep, and I swear, I don't move all night. Once asleep, I am gone, and I am usually a pretty light sleeper. We are all sleeping better, and it's about time. I realize now, we were overdue.

Carpet, right now, I am your biggest fan. So far, you are doing everything right.

Comments

[Asianmommy]

Glad you're enjoying your new home & your sleep!

[kat]

aw i liked this! a far cry from those who search for hardwoods! sounds like are you settling in very nicely. :)

[kady]

LOL! Great story.

[Carrie]

Just commenting to say, God I miss sleep. *Big sob* Unfortunetly I have carpet so that's not the problem. It's just my sweet 10 month old baby. But someday I'll sleep through the night again. And as soon as that happens we'll have another baby!

[haitian-american family of three]

I felt the same way, loved the beauty of hardwood floors gleaming in the sun, but boy nothing beats carpet for softening sound-plus my toddler loves to throw herself on the floor a million times a day so the extra cushion is nice to have.

[Maureen at IslandRoar]

If you are all sleeping well, then you must be feeling at home. Great!

[faith]

I read that book for a Dialects in Literature class in college and loved it.

I'm glad you guys like your new place and that you're resting up.

[Naomi]

I need to look into some wall-to-wall for my early riser...

[Velma]

So timely for me - after 4 years in our open plan hardwood floored house, I recently started wondering about carpeting the stairs and the upper level of the house to cut down on the noise.