Music

First of all, sorry if all my posts seem to be about the impending arrival of Lucky. I realize that this isn't going to be quite as interesting to all the rest of you out there, but it is on my mind a lot lately, so it's what I tend to write about. Right now, I'm particularly concerned about labor. More specifically, I've been thinking a lot about what music to listen to when I'm in labor this time around.

With both Bentley and Kendra, I put a lot of thought into what music I should have and didn't end up listening to any of it. Before Bentley's delivery, I spent a lot of time uploading classical music onto Craig's laptop. Anything that I felt would be soothing, like this one (Miserere Allegri) from my humanities CDs:

or calming music soundtracks (like Tuck Everlasting) were carefully uploaded and added to a playlist entitled "Labor Music." Unfortunately, when the time came, the laptop got left in the car as we checked into the hospital, and after I was settled in my room, I was too scared to let Craig leave my side. So we never had the laptop or the music on it. Or any of the other stuff we'd brought along to help out with labor. And I don't think that's the only reason Bentley ended up being born c-section, but looking back I wish I would have stopped laying in bed scared out of my mind and instead just gotten up and moved around and tried to be excited about the arrival of my baby. But as they always say-- hindsight is 20/20! (And in my defense, Bentley was face-up, which makes it a lot harder to deliver. I'm not sure the perfect music could have turned him around...)

Trying to get ready for Kendra's birth, I decided that classical music wasn't really the way to go after all. When I thought about how scary and painful Bentley's birth was for me, the song that seemed to describe it best was the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" (although I'm embedding the video here, that isn't really the point. It's the noise and the great opening line, "I can't stand it!" that clicked with me).


So for Kendra, I had my sister Tracy put together a great mix of Beastie Boys music for me. She even included the song "Girls,"-- since Kendra is a girl-- which I thought was hilarious. The song is terribly sexist, but it makes me laugh anyway. This time around I was ready: I was going to rock out to each and every contraction.

But then Kendra's labor kicked in during Stake Conference. Then it took a break and the rest of it occurred at home between the hours of 1 and 3 in the morning. Bentley was sleeping, and it still sort of felt like Sunday, so I wasn't going to blast the Beastie Boys throughout our little townhouse. I didn't end up with any music that time, either.

But here's the thing: I WANT to get to listen to music during labor! It sounds like such a great way to deal with everything! So I'm really hoping that I can make this work this time around. I'm still hopeful. But now I can't make up my mind about what would be the best music. Part of me wants to listen to a nice angry band, like Garbage.


And, this is where I feel like I must have split personalities or something, because another part of me thinks I should just listen to something classical and really joyful and that I truly can't get enough of, like Handel's Messiah. (If I do that, I will feel obligated to skip "For Unto Us a Son is Born," just because it would either seem blasphemous or way too much like I think I'm the first person to ever give birth or something. Too much for me. Besides, Lucky could be a girl, and then that would just be stupid!) The Overture alone could probably get me through most of the contractions.


So I'm torn. The good news is that it's all on Craig's iPhone, which will be in his pocket when we go to the hospital, and which I have instructed him to re-charge every night. Now if we can just find the right cords to charge our speakers, I should be set no matter which way my schizophrenic winds may blow.

What music do you like to listen to when you're stressed or in labor or just in need of a little relaxation?