Bringing Baby Home: Music

M is for Music. Two days after bringing him home, we discovered music relaxed my son. We put him in the bouncy chair, switched on the music, and watched him drift off. It worked so well, that we started playing the music on his mobile. He doesn't cry when the music is playing but the second it stops, he starts.

My son hates having his diaper changed. Hates it. So I looked up ways to make diaper changing easier and the answer seemed to be to sing to him. Um, no. Not with my voice--a former band geek I know too much about pitch and being in tune to subject him to my voice. As an alternative, I played music from a Baby Einstein toy my aunt gave me because my cousin's daughter loves the Takealong Tunes. It worked! Sometimes. Not all the time. He's started to turn his head and watch it while I change the diaper. He still kicks.

He was 7 weeks when I got the gift of eating lunch and dinner back thanks to the Lights and Melodies Discovery Center. He loves the lights, the classical music, and to bat at the hanging star and ball. At Target, the Press and Play Pals: Duck prevented a meltdown, so we bought it.

Lest this post turn out to be an ad for Baby Einstein, I've also had success with toys that play music and music boxes. And yesterday we went to a musical storytime at the library. Once he woke up, he loved it. I loved it and would be willing to spend the money for Heartsong Music Together, who led the storytime. And I've looked into getting a CD of Austin artist Sara Hickman's music.

I've relented a little bit and sing to him, mainly oldies since he likes to "stand" and tends to wobble a bit. Somehow that cute little wobble makes me think of Surfing USA and Twist and Shout.