Vomiting ‘too loud’ for pregnant woman’s neighbour

Morning sickness is an everyday part of pregnancy especially during the first trimester. However the level of nausea can vary. Some might just feel a little off, others may vomit on a daily basis.

One woman in the early stages of her pregnancy – like many others – found herself vomiting several time a day.

And if this wasn’t enough to deal with, she also had complaints from her neighbour about noise caused by her ‘loud puking’.

Can you keep it down?

Taking her story to Reddit, the woman explained how it’s not uncommon to hear the people who live around her. “I live in an apartment building with thin walls,” she said. “I can hear my neighbors shower, conversations at times.” However when it came to her own morning sickness, one neighbour in particular showed very little toleration.

“My neighbor knocked on my door and said she could hear my “loud puking” all the time, and she has a gag reflex when she hears people, throwing up,” said the pregnant woman. “She said that she had almost thrown up after hearing me.” The neighbour went on to ask if the soon-mum-to-be would do something like run water, play music or even turn on the bathroom fan before vomiting.

The woman who hadn’t even revealed her pregnancy to her family yet, felt obliged to share the news with the neighbour. “It seemed like she was implying that I was purposely making myself vomit so I felt like I had to explain,” she said.

Not good enough!

The pregnant woman apologised for bothering her neighbour and told her that she was suffering from morning sickness. And while she said that she would try to turn on the fan, the nausea would come on very quickly so she couldn’t make any promises. “She didn’t seem very happy with this but said okay and left,” explained the woman.

So the she turned on the fan when she could and tried to be quiet throughout her ordeal but found it all quite stressful. Until eventually her neighbour knocked on her door once again to say that she could still hear the vomiting noise, and if it didn’t stop she would talk to building management. “I was exhausted and over it, so I told her ‘okay then’ and closed the door.”

“What are you supposed to do?”

While the woman was too tired and sick to be angry with her neighbour, she said to the Reddit forum, “I feel like I’ve done what I can reasonably do but [am I the asshole]?”

The post was received a huge (and angry) response with many readers expressing their outrage at the neighbour’s lack of understanding. “Go knock on their door every time you can hear them showering, talking or anything else,” said one reader. “You may as well do that because this neighbor is going to be a real pain once you have a a baby that cries.”

Another one said, “If she finally talks to the manager don’t worry about it. There’s no way they’re siding with your neighbor. It’s totally unreasonable to ask you to stop vomiting or to do it more quietly, because it’s something you can’t control.”

“NTA but your neighbour absolutely is,” said another. “What are you supposed to do, it’s not like you’re doing it on purpose.”

And finally “Your neighbor is perfectly capable of distracting herself with music or whatever,” read the comment. “It blows my mind how some people just demand strangers to cater to them and expect it to work.”

Not only did the woman receive enormous support for her predicament, she was also given handy advice on dealing with morning sickness. While this may or may not keep the demanding neighbour at bay, it might just offer offer the struggling mum a little comfort, during what can be a truly difficult time.