Clara has gone through a lot of changes since I've been in Germany. Her first tooth has broken the skin, she's much stronger, she loves to stand up and walk (with someone holding her hands), and in the last day or so she's gotten good enough to hold herself up standing next to a low chair or shelf. The teething plus the standing/rolling development have meant that she's having major trouble falling asleep.
They say that during major developmental milestones (like sitting, or crawling, or walking) babies have a lot of trouble falling asleep because their brains are so active. It certainly seems that way with Clara. She'll be lying in bed exhausted, almost asleep, when suddenly her legs start flailing, waking her up. She also does some major rolls, and when she's lying on her tummy she lifts her bum up to the sky (Clara doesn't crawl yet, and I don't think she's ever done that during the day. She's clearly strong enough to crawl, but somehow she hasn't figured it out. Too excited about standing, I guess). The teething also doesn't help. Sometimes she's just fallen asleep when she flings her head back in pain, and then she has to calm down again.
So our nighttime ritual for the past few weeks has been that Tanja puts Clara to sleep relatively easily, and she sleeps for about an hour. Then she wakes up, and depending on how awake she is she either comes back out of the bedroom, or else one or both of us stay there trying to get her back to sleep. But this can easily be a 1-2 hour process (usually with several parent swaps...). If I was working full time I can imagine this could be awful, but since I get a reasonable amount of "me" time during the day (when she takes her naps) it's really not so bad.
When Clara is pretty awake but I don't want to take her out of the bedroom, I often sing to her. I usually start with the songs my parents sang to me: "train whistle blowing", "you are my sunshine", "grandfather's clock", "old black Joe", "my bonnie lies over the ocean". Then I progress to other songs I've picked up over the years: "whiskey in the jar", "black velvet band", "the mermaid", "Barret's privateers", "general Taylor", "big rock candy mountains", "in the jailhouse now", "Stetson Kennedy", "I was born".
So what are your favorites, either to sing yourself or that you remember your parents singing to you? Let us know in the comments!
9 comments:
I started singing the first two verses of "O Susannah" (or "O Dear Silas" to Si when he was a couple of days old and still use it when I'm helping him relax. For some reason, I would sing "This Land is Your Land" when we went running. I also used to recite The Jabberwocky on infinite loop while he fell asleep. These days in the morning he likes to hear "I've been working on the railroad".
Yes! Chris made up alternate lyrics for "This Land is Your Land" for Clara's two other countries (I guess the Canadian lyrics actually existed, but the German ones he made up) - so we sing it too, but for Clara it has three stanzas!
From Frankfurt am Main, to the Rügen island,
From the München beer halls, to the Ostsee waters,
This land was made for you and me
I sing "Good night, Jacob", a song passed down from my aunt (i can send lyrics if you need them)and "Itsy Bitsy Spider". Also I make up words to "Alouette" which I can share off line due to the very high cheese factor. Sometimes just "ABC..." as well.
I loved singing "Sleep baby sleep" to all 3 of the kids. They loved it too. My Nana sang it in German to all her grandchildren and great grandchildren. Also, "You are my sunshine" of course...except when I'd start to sing it too Amy when she was really little, she'd start to cry. The first year we took her camping, I was trying to get her to sleep and started singing it and she started to cry, so the only thing that popped into my head to sing was, "Oh Canada"! Yeesh...I swear I sang it over and over cuz she calmed down so fast. Still makes me laugh.
Sue.
Josiah loves Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (esp in Chinese, but I don't think Clara will have the same response). For sleepytime, we often sing Brahms' Lullabye. I never knew the words before, but here they are:
Lullabye, and Goodnight.
You're your mother's delight.
Shining angels, standing by
my darling, abide.
Soft and warm is your bed.
Close your eyes rest your head.
Soft and warm is your bed.
Close your eyes rest your head.
The lullaby I remember from when my parents used to sing it to my younger brothers and sister is Bye, Baby Bunting:
Bye, Baby Bunting,
Daddy's gone a-hunting,
Gone to get a rabbit-skin
To wrap his Baby Bunting in.
Bye, Baby Bunting.
It's apparently got lots of other versions too!
There's a very cute recording of it here.
Suzanne reminds me too about Hush Little Baby, Don't You Cry, which I remember too from my brothers and sister, and Oh, Susannah!.
When I was small, I also used to love the records of Steeleye Span, an English folk-rock group that my parents love (they're still around) and to which I'm now very attached too. Not so much to send me to sleep but because it reminds me of a lovely home and childhood. Great music.
Hi, there! Oh My! Clara is growing so fast.
Not long ago I gathered a number of songs for a little cousin of mine. Here is the list. Most of them are in Spanish, but the ones in English are really good. ;-)
My favs:
* Warm Panda Cola - THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO
* Tree Hugger - ANTSY PANTS
* I'm Sticking With You - THE VELVET UNDERGROUND
Damien, it's great to "see" you around.
Sorry, I messed up the links.
This is the good list:
* Warm Panda Cola - THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO
* Tree Hugger - ANTSY PANTS
* I'm Sticking With You - THE VELVET UNDERGROUND
Post a Comment