So Kristy and I have a new daily ritual. She lies down on the bed and I lay my head against her tummy in an attempt to commune with the baby! It is something I look forward to everyday. I can already see how hard it will be to go to school/work and not be around all the time, and the baby isn’t even out yet. I still love feeling the little kicks and punches against my cheek and hands. It is a feeling unlike any other and it makes me so jealous of Kristy that she gets to experience this and I can’t! Of course, I can feel the baby and hear the baby much better than she can since I can put my ear right on it! The other day I must have been right over the baby’s chest because as soon as I put my ear on her tummy I heard the heartbeat. That was the first time I heard the heartbeat without the help of the ultrasound from the doctor’s office.
In fact just about every time I listen I also speak to the baby. Sometimes I even sing. “Stardust” (click to hear…) by Hoagy Carmichael seems to be my favorite so far and I am hoping that Kristy learns the lullaby I wrote so she can sing that to the baby. For some reason it feels weird for me to sing a lullaby to the baby that I wrote. I don’t really have an explanation as to why that is though… I met and talked to a leading international pre-natal music therapist in Austin (yes, that is an actual career path…) and asked her if she could only give me one piece of advice, from a pre-natal music therapist point of view, what that would be. Her answer: “You and your wife should be singing to that baby every day…” She also pointed me to a website: birthpsychology.com where she has written articles and helps maintain the site. There are some pretty interesting articles in there pointing out the benefits of singing to your baby in utero.
We start birthing classes next Monday, so I am sure the posts will be coming faster and faster!
