Music and Lyrics

Daddy playing "baby guitar."

I still remember back when we were swaddling Baby. He had just passed two months old, and our typical routine of getting him to sleep involved playing an eight-hour long video of the “shushing” sound because Dr. Harvey Karp (of Snoo fame) recommended “shushing” as one of his five “s” tips for calming a crying baby. It appeared to work, or at least help a little. But as Baby grew older, he seemed to be outgrowing the sound. I was thinking about this as I spoke with a coworker at Starbucks that day. It was a rare outing with Baby during  maternity leave, and he managed to fall asleep under my nursing cape despite the loud and busy noise of the coffee shop around us. My coworker, who had two sons himself, asked how life was going, and toward the end of our conversation casually mentioned that it might help to play music for our baby at night. He played Joni Mitchell and other “easy listening” artists, recommending that we pick music that we, as parents, enjoyed too since we would be listening to the songs over and over again.

This conversation first sparked me to create my son’s own YouTube playlist, starting with his “calming song” that nine times out of ten can get him to stop crying (“Remember Me” from Coco that can still get Baby calm when we sing it out loud to him). The playlist has other songs we associate with Baby or have played for Baby, and we used it to get him to sleep at night until I read in a new baby book that songs with lyrics might be “too stimulating” for nighttime and that instrumentals might be better. Like Mozart. Everyone recommends Mozart for babies. So we started a new routine playing the same Mozart lullaby for Baby each night to signal that it’s bedtime.

Flash forward to now. Baby is over five months old, and music still plays a major role in his life. In addition to keeping “Remember Me” in our back pocket for meltdown emergencies and playing it on repeat when my in-laws come over to babysit, I’ve noticed that almost any song played in the car while I’m driving home can make him somewhat more calm than he was before (this especially helps on trips where Daddy can’t sit in the backseat to keep him occupied).

Then there was a night a couple of weeks back where Baby was being particularly fussy before bed. He started a frustrating new habit of literally growling when I tried to feed him. I couldn’t figure out what this growl meant (other than displeasure). Was he full? Needed to burp? Uncomfortable on his side? I tried everything to ease his discomfort. I replaced my milk with a pacifier in case he was full but still wanted to comfort suck. Nope. I tried burping him. Carrying him. Rocking him. Switching sides. Starting all over again. It was bedtime, and he was showing clear signs of fatigue, but he would not fall asleep. Finally, out of desperation, I put on a song Hubby and I had played for him earlier during the day for fun. It wasn’t meant to be a calming song. It wasn’t a lullaby. It was just something Mommy and Daddy liked listening to over and over again because it was funny. For those unfamiliar with YouTube’s “Bad Lip Reading” series, it probably seems completely weird. And, of course, the words make no sense. But it has a catchy beat and I raised the volume on my phone while I started to play it over and over again.

Baby’s eyes closed. He calmed down and stopped fussing and growling. It got him to sleep!

So forget the theory that songs with words are “too stimulating” to play for a baby at bedtime—we have another card in our back pocket to pull out when needed. Maybe it was just the fact that it was music, or maybe it was the fact that he associated the song with Mom and Dad. But it worked for him, which meant it worked for us.

And then just last night, after reading Baby a bedtime story, I started to sing to him my classic library story time song, "Shake My Sillies" out by Raffi. He LOVED it. He grinned a huge smile the whole time I helped him shake his sillies out and clap his crazies out. It didn't exactly help get him to sleep this time, as Baby just did not want to go to sleep at all last night, but it did put him in a good mood during a time where he might otherwise have been crying (because, again, he didn't want to go to sleep).

At my parents’ house Baby has also been exposed to the piano (he pressed some keys himself!) and to the guitar that my brother played. Both seemed to fascinate him, at least for a few minutes. I wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to take up an instrument of his own later in life. But at least we know that music, and singing especially, has a special power for him.

Because words are important. He reacts more when we sing lyrics than when we hum a tune (although he does giggle sometimes when both Papa and Opapa whistle). He hears our voices. He listens.

This could be why, at the age of 5 and a half months, Baby has already been able to say his first word! At least, it sounds like a word, even if he's too young for real talking and doesn't understand what the word means.

But it doesn't matter to me. He said what every mother hopes to hear first: "Mom." And interestingly, not "Mama" or "Mommy." In the cutest voice, he pressed his lips together and said (more than once) "Muuuhhhmm."

I cherish it.

Speaking of words, because lyrics and poetry are so important, I'm leaving a couple of poems we wrote at the end of this post as something else to remind me of cute baby memories. While feeding Baby one night, this is what came to mind:

Baby Hands

I can feel both his tiny
soft hands against my skin
as he sleeps
And all I can think of is how
Like when he used to move
inside me
I never want to forget
this feeling

My son also wrote a poem when I put a keyboard in front of him. Baby's Poem:

/m/ ecgwag Ωsgr cat uv you n /.  Dzzz//\h/h!hh /XX

I cherish it just as much too. ;)