The beauty of a sleeping child can take your breath away…especially if you are the parent of that sleeping child. Lullabies can create a smooth transition from waking to sleeping. Here are three easy steps to pick a perfect lullaby for your sleepy time routine:
1. Choose a song that YOU love - so that when you sing it, your child will feel the emotional connection you have to the song. No song is off limits. Babies will absorb the feeling and the soothing melody, not the meaning of the words.
2. Certified Sleep Consultant Rosalee Lahaie Hera, at Baby Sleep Love suggests including a song in your bedtime routine. A solid bedtime routine includes calming activities done in approximately the same order every night. For example: wash up, pjs, bedtime books, SONGS, snuggles and then into bed. But you can create whatever routine works best for your family. A nap time routine can also be helpful to lull baby into sleep and is simply a shortened version of the bedtime routine.
3. If singing is something you are not comfortable doing, you can always leave it to the experts. Set up a little cordless speaker that you can sync to your phone and have your lullaby of choice ready to roll for nap and bedtime. Cuddle, sway and sooth your baby as the music plays softly. Be careful you don’t drift off as well…
HAVE FUN WITH LULLABIES
Babies are intuitive and will pick up on your emotions whether you are relaxed or tense. So having fun with your lullaby repertoire can help YOU to be more relaxed during the bedtime routine.
My sister and her husband are not big fans of “children’s music”, so they chose a lovely Rankin Family tune, Whiskey in the Cup, for their twins sleepy time routine . The lyrics include and are not limited to…”and not one of us were sober”. The celebratory lyrics sung in a soft, sleepy time voice were actually quite beautiful and worked wonders to coo their little angels to sleep.
In my family we chose to sing Goodnight Irene to our child. We liked to be creative with lyrics and we substituted her name for Irene and then altered the lyrics to recap her day. As she grew older, she would smile when we would sing her name with "...swam in the water and played with all her friends”.
Celtic and Traditional Lullabies from Our Cape Breton is the album I would play after lunch to set the tone for sleepy time when my daughter was a baby. To this day when I listen to Track #8 - Study in G by Carulli and track # 9 - The Blue Mountain’s Lullaby I am carried away to the magical, yet exhausting, days of early motherhood.
My ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE lullaby is Raffi’s Blessed Be sung by Allison Krauss. Her ethereal singing and arrangement of this touching song will most certainly melt your heart.
If you want more exposure to gentle music to share with your child, click here to check out our music and movement classes.