Help me make a nice playlist that I can listen to during this pregnancy, in labour (or, as is looking more likely, the operating room during a c-section) and afterwards that I can play to the baby .
Apparently they recognise music they hear in utero and might calm down and sleep to a familiar song (it’s worth a shot anyway). We don’t know what we’re having so it doesn’t have to be gender specific.
Stuff I’ve thought of already:
Beautiful Boy- John Lennon
Kooks-Bowie
Gracie- Ben Fold
Simple Man -Lynyrd Skynyrd
Here Comes the Sun- The Beatles
God Bless the Child- Billie Holliday
How about some nice waltz’s from Strauss?
They do hear the music.
When I was pregnant with Child 1, I was pretty much majorly addicted to Jeopardy. If I flicked through the channels right, I could get a good sixty minutes of it. Sometimes more, if I cared enough, depending on the local and national programming.
When he was an infant -toddler phase, every time that song came on…every time…whatever he was doing he stopped and just stared at the TV mesmerized.
He still does this to this day if we are home. Hypnotic staring… He will be 11 in April.
Ironically enough, I haven’t watched probably 20 episodes since then.
I am, however, addicted to Cash Cab.
This is probably going to be really hard to find, but if there’s any way you can track down a song called “Little Little” by Australian singer Jenny Morris, you won’t regret it. It’s a beautiful ode to her unborn child, recorded when Morris was eight months pregnant, and I get tingles every time I hear it.
Disclaimer: I think it’s a horrible, horrible, misogynist song from the 70’s. Makes me throw up a little in my mouth. But it was the first song that came to mind.
Ooo! A more serious contender:
“The first time ever I saw your face” by Roberta Flack.
I heard it was a song she wrote about her cat, but that was from a crazy cat lover who made crap up. It would be a nice song for your purposes, I think.
Alison’s Krauss’ version of “Baby Mine” from Dumbo makes me cry every time from the sheer emotion. I’m a hard bitch, but I fantasize about how I’m going to sing it to my child when I have one.
For some reason the first song that popped into my head was a cut from the Billy Bragg / Wilco “Mermaid Avenue” CD titled “Remember the Mountain Bed”. Baby might also like “California Stars” from the same CD.
Seconding Alison Krauss’s “Baby Mine” and adding Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “Dreamland.”
When my eldest turned one, I made a slideshow cd of my favorite pictures from her first year and set them to those two songs. They still make me misty.
Stay away from accordions! Accordion music has always made me feel panicky and claustrophobic. It’s only a few years ago that my mother confessed that she played the accordion a lot whilst pregnant with me.
Or maybe it’s because my fetal self thought it was too loud. In that case, be careful with the volume!
(Click “Play the song” by the blue arrow to hear the whole thing.)