The Naturalist and I were listening to my itunes selection, when a song came on that reminded me of when she was a baby. In fact, it was the song I used to rock her to most often. Notice I didn’t say, ‘rock her to sleep’ most often, because there wasn’t much sleep going on when she was a baby. Or a toddler. Or even a preschooler/schooler. Actually, there still isn’t tons of sleep with her…but now she’s able to draw/read/write/doodle/listen to her ipod quietly in bed, so it doesn’t affect me like it used to. It also helps that we don’t have a rigid schoolbus/starting schoolday schedule to follow.
She cried when she was a newborn. She cried a lot. It wasn’t really colic. It was just…she didn’t really like being a baby, I guess. I don’t think she liked laying around looking at things, watching people move all around except her. The more mobility she achieved, the happier she became.
In any case, traditional lullabies didn’t work well for her. Too slow, too boring, too quiet. She slept best when being jostled at a fast clip, help tight to my chest so there was no ‘head bobble’. A song had just come out on the radio, by The Cardigans. Anyone remember ‘Lovefool’? It was the perfect beat, and perfect rhythm for baby wrangling.
I started singing it to her often, and eventually I changed the words around to suit my situation. It went a little something like this:
Dear, I fear we’re facing a problem
youlove mesleep no longer, I know
and maybe there is nothing
that I can do to make you do
Mama tells me I shouldn’t bother
thatI ought just stick to another manyou’ll sleep when you wanna
a man that surely deserves mebut you aren’t sleeping at all,
and I think youdoshould!So I cry, I pray, and I beg…
Love me,love meSleepy! Sleepy!
Say thatyou love meyou’re sleepy.
Fool me, fool me
Go on and fool me!
Love me,love meSleepy! Sleepy!
Pretend thatyou love meyou’re sleepy.
Leave me,leave meLay down, Lay down
Just say thatyou need meyou’re sleepy!
I can’t care ’bout anything butyousleep!!!Lately I have desperately pondered,
Spent my nights awake and I wonder
What I could have done in another way
To make youstaysleep!Reason will not lead to solution,
And I end up lost in confusion.
I don’t care if you really care
As long as youdon’t gogo to sleep!So I cry, I pray, and I beg…
Love me,love meSleepy! Sleepy!
Say thatyou love meyou’re sleepy.
Fool me, fool me
Go on and fool me!
Love me,love meSleepy! Sleepy!
Pretend thatyou love meyou’re sleepy.
Leave me,leave meLay down, Lay down
Just say thatyou need meyou’re sleepy!
I can’t care ’bout anything butyousleep!!!
That song got me through many a late night and nap-less day, I tell you. So much so, that now it’s part of her newbornhood in my memory. It’s not Mozart’s “Night Music” but I find it more comforting than that ‘rock a bye’ stuff with the baby crashing down at the end.
Filed under: The Naturalist
So funny! I think you should be nominated for a Grammy.
I hate to admit it, but Alanis’ JLP is like that for me.
I got a copy when my daughter was about 9 months old and I used to sing to it and dance around while she was in her highchair.
She would laugh…and laugh and laugh. I had long hair and imitated quite well Alanis’ sweeping head lunges, which would throw my daughter into baby hysterics.
I could play almost the entire album before either of us got bored.
The magic of music.
We have a few of those, too.
One is “Let’s go change your pants!” to the tune of “Let’s go fly a kite!” and anohther is “Baby, baby, love you so much, I do” to the tune of “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true”.
I have never sung them Rockabye, Baby, either, didn’t want to give them nightmares!
Funny thing… I’ve often though my youngest doesn’t like being “little”. He has been very much a crier since his first few weeks. Much more than my other one, who rarely… if ever… cried.
We sang Itsy Bitsy Milo. He was a tiny tiny baby. LOL
Haha cute! My neice used to be rocked to sleep by The Steve Miller Band. Z wasn’t a music sleeper; too much of a music lover – he liked Metallica as a baby. Now he loves ACDC and KISS. Go figure.
I love hearing about all these lullabye adaptations. Sweet, funny, and a little weird.
Families rock!