Before birth, what did you read/music did you play?

[flagger]

Ms. Flagger is at 22 weeks and for the past two I have been reading a chapter a night of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Cocoa really starts to get active at night as I read to mommy's tummy and it is a nice quiet time for her mom and I.

Musically, she enjoys Mona Lisa's and Mad Hatter's - Elton John, Josie - Steely Dan, and for some strange reason she really likes Paradise by the Dashboard Light - Meatloaf. Haven't experimented with other songs yet.

How about you? What did you read or music did you play to your tummy before birth.

Flagger
Planned SAHD to Cocoa LaFleur
EDD 05-23-03

For privacy reasons, we are not using her real name online.

[SASM]

We've been playing mainly Mozart for the baby since around Week 22. My girlfriend did the same and her son, to this day, still finds comfort in the music that was played in utero (he is 2.5yo).

My husband has read everything to the baby "belly", from Curious George to his medical textbooks :-)

Sharyn
EDD #1 01.21.03

[kathsmom]

When I was pregnant with DD, I was in the church choir, and she really moved a lot when we sang the old gospel songs. She seemed to enjoy the Christmas songs we sang for our Christmas cantata at church (especially the one set to a calypso beat/sound).

I also listened a lot to Jimmy Buffet's tape. I was a home health speech therapist, and did a lot of travelling, and that was the only tape I had in my car for a long time. She seemed to enjoy Margaritaville, Fins, and Come Monday.

She loves to listen to all types of music and dance!

DS has no preference right now for anything!

Good luck!

Toni

[C99]

Um, nothing! My husband talks to my tummy on occasion, but that's about it. :)

[egoldber]

LOL! I'm with you! DH was very uncomfortable talking to "the belly". I chattered at my belly conversationally much like I do to the dog and cats, but nothing terribly intellectual.

Now Sarah is fond of all kinds of music. The first music she really "danced" to, I'm embarrassed to admit, was the Mazda "zoom, zoom, zoom" commercial. It is amazing to me that sometimes when we are out, I will see her start to "dance" and then realize that there is background music that I didn't even hear.

A mommy friend and I have lunch at a California Pizza Kitchen at a nearby mall fairly frequently. The CPK plays a 70's/80's dance mix in the background and both babies go NUTS for it! It's pretty funny to watch them bouncing in their high chairs to Barry Manilow's "Copacabana"! :) :)

[nigele]

My husband read all four Harry Potter books aloud while I was pregnant. He would tuck me into bed each night and make me a cup of hot chocolate and read for an hour or so until I fell asleep. Funny, our DS was born with a lightning bolt shaped blood vessel showing through the baby-fine skin between his eyes (and he is half English.) Coincidence? I don't think so! We call him "Little Harry Potter".

[etwahl]

Are you kidding me Lisa? That is so funny! I LOVE Harry Potter. We had Evan tape himself on video reading a bit of H.P. before he left. I still haven't read book four. I think I'm postponing it as long as possible so they're not all done. That is amazing about the lightning bolt. I can't believe it!!!

Btw, your DH sounds so sweet. Hot chocolate and reading in bed? How wonderful. Mine gave me massages at night in bed, and finished off with a scalp massage which put me right to sleep. I already miss those massages!!!

Tammy,
Mom-to-be Mar 8, 2003!

[JMarie]

I wish! DH LOVES to sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" to my belly, and if that is the only thing that will make Aidan sleep, I'm going to strangle him! Actually, I do a lot of singing, and Aidan really seems to like anything - especially dance-hall, club, and techno music! I love to go out dancing with friends, so we're pretty sure Aidan will come out dancing himself. As long as it's not to the "Ballgame" song...

JMarie
EDD 2/23/03
Aidan Christopher

[MartiesMom2B]

I haven't really played any music for Martie except for singing the Hoky Poky to her while she's kicking around in there, and my singing in the car.

However I have received a book as a gift called Oh, Baby, the Places You'll Go - a book to be read in utero by Tish Rabe. It's based on Dr. Seuss' work and his wife actually write a forward that stated that Theodore Geisel was intrigued by research of reading to developing babies. It's really cute and goes over most of the characters in Dr. Seuss books.

Sonia
EDD 4/14/03

[mama2be]

I have only heard this song once...and DH is on a quest to find it for me. But it is called "The day" and it is by Baby Face and written for his wife (or mother of his child) about the day she gave him a child...I remember loving it when I heard it and I was single and children were the last thing on my mind...it is special!!!

Maybe for the hospital in the evening when you all are cuddeled up together :)...

[C99]

FYI, Harry Potter Year 5 will be out in June of this year. It's only 18 months late, but Amazon is taking pre-orders so it must really be coming.

[nigele]

Tammy,

We love Harry Potter, too! We pre-ordered the fifth book from Amazon's UK website just so we would have the English version. (DH is English.) We actually saw the second movie last month while we were there visiting.

Your DH sounds sweet as well! Mine hates to give massages (I'd take a massage over hot chocolate any day!!) We should all get together for a spa vacation! ;-)

Lisa

[flagger]

I just loaded up the MP3 player with some new selections:

Blackbird & Norwegian Wood - Beatles
Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding
Into the Mystic & Moondance - Van Morrison
You're No Good - Linda Rondstadt
Use Me - Bill Withers
Mozart - Fantasia in D Minor & Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

[newbelly2002]

While pregnant, I used to commute 1.5 hours to teach 3 times a week and had only one tape in the car: The Cowboy Junkies Trinity Session. Dante still adores it. He grows quiet every time we put it on.

On the "outside," Dante seems to be a big Benny Goodman (I had originally written "Benny Hill" and it took 5 minutes of me staring at it to figure out what was wrong. Yikes.) fan. My FIL has made us over 60 CDs of classical music with lots of Issac Perlman and Rachmaninoff. I don't have the heart to break it to him that Dante does not enjoy the orchestral OR chamber stuff.

As to reading, from Day #1 DH read comtemporary poetry and the newspaper sports pages to Dante figuring that if it really was the sound of his voice that was soothing then why not read something interesting to him (DH) as well.

Now we're back into Goodnight Moon, Brown Bear, and some German staples.

And more than anything else, Dante loves to be sung to: "Amazing Grace," "You are my sunshine," and "On Top of the World," (Carpenters. Yes, I'm a 70s sappy child. It's a cute song!).

Paula

[blnony]

This has been an interesting thread. DD loves the Dixie Chicks. Loves them. If she is crying in the car, which is almost always, the Chicks come on, and poof! She just gets quiet. Now DH has it in the living room ready to go for emergency purposes. Anytime I come home from the store, I can hear the Chicks going before I get through the door.
She also likes Train and James Taylor. I don't know why James Taylor, I never listened to it pregnant, but the others I did.
DH read a lot of Fairy Tales (one of those compilation volumes) to the "belly." He does the bathtime routine which includes the nighttime book, and Audrey just snuggles into him, I think she is familar with his voice and reading.

[August Mom]

My DH refused to read to or speak to our DS before he was born. Despite that, they seem to get along great now :) I spoke to DS before he was born and read to him at times, typically board books such as "The Three Bears," "Peter Rabbit," "I Love You As Much...," and "How Do I Love You?" and some books for older kids such as "Love You Forever" and "The Kissing Hand." You can see that for the most part, I had a love theme going!

As far as music goes, DS mostly listened to classical. We had season tickets to the symphony, so DS heard an assortment of pieces there. The most reaction to any music that I felt was when we went to a Beethoven festival. He either really loved or really hated the Beethoven piano concertos. We heard all of them that weekend. I think he liked them, though, and still seems to enjoy classical music.

We also played some contemporary Christian music for him. When I selected it, he heard a lot of Twila Paris, Michael W. Smith, Point of Grace and Steven Curtis Chapman. When DH made the selections, DS got to listen to DC Talk, Caedmon's Call and Third Day.

The music discussion reminds me of a funny story. Shortly after DS was born we had a mix of contemporary Christian music playing and for some reason he calmed down when a somewhat obscure group called By the Tree started singing. The song was "Walk" and contained a line "if you'd just close your eyes" -- our thoughts exactly :)

[MartiesMom2B]

Lisa:

Hey I've been wondering if the English version of Harry Potter movie is any from the American version? I'm a big Anglo-phile and tell DH on a regular basis that I want to move to the UK. He says no to that as well as to massages. Sigh, some women have all the luck. :)

Sonia
EDD 4/14/03

[flagger]

My next door neighbor gave us a copy of Oh, Baby, the Places You'll Go adapted by Tish Rabe from the works of Dr. Seuss. The neighbor is 5.5 weeks ahead of us, the baby Beta tester we call her, and I had shoveled her driveway after the snow. Her hubby is gone all week so I do little things like that and taking the garbage can back in just because I hope someone would one day do the same for Ms. Flagger. (A firm believer in Karma)

Anyway she left this in our mailbox on Monday and we love it. In the forward, Audrey Geisel the wife of the late Theodore Geisel talks about his interest in an article where research had been done into reading while in utero. Apparently he was quite touched that the book the chose to use was The Cat in the Hat. I love this little book and can't praise it enough.

We have noticed increased movement while I am reading, still on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I love to feel her move and kick.