Flush It Friday: Lullaby Time
It’s that time again. But this time I need some rest.
They say there are a few life changing events that one experiences throughout their lifetime – marriage, buying a house, death of an immediate family member and having a child. Well yours truly just went through that last one a second time. As many of you know my wife and I welcomed our second child, a baby girl named Jasmine into the world last week. And on that note, I’m going to share with you the good, bad and ugly of it all.
The Good: First and foremost, my baby girl has a clean bill of health and my wife, after nine grueling months of intense dieting due to gestational diabetes is fine as well and can begin resuming a semi-normal lifestyle. While she hated every minute of it, she was a trooper throughout the whole thing while managing to work as a massage therapist for most of her pregnancy.
Spring is a great time to have a baby – the weather here in NJ last week was lovely and naturally I took off from work to spend time with the fam. A week before the baby arrived my sister told me that when I saw my baby girl that she would steal my heart and she’s done just that. She’s about as well behaved as a newborn could be. She practically sleeps through the night and when she cries it’s because she needs a diaper change or she’s hungry. We couldn’t have asked for a smoother transition from out of the womb and into our arms. We’ll be walking on easy street until she starts crawling and walking. Once she’s on the move, it’s a different story. Now that the bun is out of the oven, it’s time to start looking for a new place to work. I would’ve left sooner but we needed my job’s health insurance to cover the hospital bills. I’m pretty confident I can secure a better salary elsewhere so I’m going to explore that and get away from this micro manager boss who couldn’t direct her way out of a paper bag.
The Bad: My other child is a two year old boy and I’m sure you’ve heard the expression – “terrible two’s”. Well it’s all true and very real. My son is a two year old version of Charlie Sheen minus the cocaine and porn stars. He’s a living, breathing Gremlin who’ll create a mess in our house like Jim Morrison used to wreak havoc on hotel rooms during one of his acid-laced drunken benders. He loves his little sister very much since he kisses her every chance he gets. But it’s to the point where the baby needs to file a restraining order against him. Getting him to bed is no picnic either and that’s my responsibility. The first couple of nights of the baby being home were rough so we’re making some adjustments to get him in a routine and our fingers are crossed that we can have some peaceful evenings. I honestly thought I wasn’t going to be able to do this post because of how ugly the first few nights were. According to my brother-in-law, the kids don’t start to cool off until they hit 3 -3 1/2 years old so this is what I have to look forward to for the foreseeable future. Everyone says time goes fast but it’s probably moving in slow motion for me because of this.
Ugly: See Bad. This can get ugly.
In the 1st few weeks of life babies sleep a lot. Sometimes they get cranky which creates problems with getting them to fall asleep. That’s where lullabies come in. As a modern dad, I’m not going to serenade her with crappy songs like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “Rock A Bye Baby” because a) I don’t want to hear them and b) those songs suck. I’d really like to play her Jhazmyne’s Lullaby by 7 Angels, 7 Plagues but I don’t think the sound of a heavy hardcore band has any chance of inducing sleep. I’ve got a few jams that will have her off to Never Never Land in no time.
I like to refer to O’ Brother as the dirty Mars Volta but this particular song is a nice calming and relaxing song that I used many times to get my son to bed when he was a baby. The bass and drums drive the whole thing while the guitars and vocals create an atmosphere that puts the mind at ease.
“Everything In It’s Right Place” by Radiohead is one of the most relaxing and chill songs I can think of and the baby thinks so too.
Much like the O’ Brother song above, “Paisley” by Hopesfall is another one of those laid back jams that slowly builds and intensifies but never goes over the cliff. Perfect for rocking your baby to sleep.
Now it’s time for the rest of you to channel your inner Clint Eastwood and share your good, bad and ugly. But do me a favor and share some lullabies too so I can make a playlist for Jasmine in case some of my other selections don’t do the trick. She’s already had the pleasure of hearing these a few times and they work like a charm. Now since we’re talking about my baby girl, I’d like to share a picture of her so here you go:
Just kidding, here’s Jasmine and your’s truly – the baby’s daddy.
My shirt says “Listen To Ghostface” is you are trying to decipher it.
Thanks to Joe for letting me do this post and thanks to all of you in TovH community that have sent me well wishes for the baby. It may seem that we are all a bunch of strangers on the internet but we are all strongly connected by our love for music and I’m thankful that we can come on here everyday and interact with one another. Have a great weekend and don’t go too hard on the sauce!!!!!!
