A New Lullaby

Ezra loves listening to music, especially as he falls asleep. I'm sure part of this calming effect comes from just how much music we played in the home those first several months of his life. When handling his colic slow, mellow tunes helped Kellen and I stay sane and extended our patience. When I felt I couldn't bounce on the yoga ball any longer I would listen to the music, bounce to the rhythm and let the calm wash over me (even if it only lasted for those few precious minutes). 

 @ 4 weeks in his favorite napping spot, my chest.

Over the last several months many Pandora stations (on our Roku) have been tailored made to help the little guy drift off and Essie Jain's Until The Light Of Morning and Cat Power's The Covers Record have become nap and bedtime staples. As much as Ez enjoys listening to recorded tunes, sometimes a good lullaby is all that will do to bring him to slumber. It didn't take long for Rock-A-Bye Baby and Brahms' Lullaby to get played out amongst these parts. 

Now that we have worked through the classics I have begun to simply sing him some of my favorite songs, songs that make me feel, songs about love, songs about rest. The last couple of days The Magnetic Field's Asleep and Dreaming kept popping into my head as I rocked, bounced, and fed him off to sleep making it the newest lullaby in our rotation. I have always had a sweet spot in my heart for this song, but now as I sing it to my beautiful boy the words take on new meaning.

I've seen you laugh at nothing at all
I've seen you sadly weeping
The sweetest thing I ever saw
Was you asleep and dreaming

Well you may not be beautiful
But it's not for me to judge
I don't know if you're beautiful
Because I love you too much

I've seen you laugh at nothing at all
I've seen you sadly weeping
The sweetest thing I ever saw
Was you asleep and dreaming

I've seen you when your ship came in
And when your train was leaving
The sweetest thing I ever saw
Was you asleep and dreaming

Namaste.

Tara 

---

Birth Playlist (Part 2 of 2)

 Elliot Smith- Between The Bars 

Bright Eyes- First Day of My Life 

Cat Power- I Found a Reason

Sea of Love

Maybe Not

Sigur Ros- Svefn g englar

Staralfur

The Decemberists- Red Right Ankle

The Magnetic Fields- The Book of Love

Voxtrot- Long Haul

Sway

Yann Tiersen- Comptine d'un autre ete l'apres midi

Slow Club- Apples and Pairs

Sufjan Stevens- To Be Alone With You

Explosions in the Sky- So Long, Lonesome

Your Hand in Mine

Azure Ray- Beautiful Things Can Come From the Dark 

Bon Iver- Flume

Sorry for the delay in posting part 2. Enjoy! 

Namaste!
Tara

My Birth Playlist (Part 1 of 2)

Saying you love music is like saying you love air. I mean, who doesn't, right? You need it to survive so how could you not love it? I have always put a lot of stock in the power of music. It began with finding the best new, obscure thing, something I could call my own and transformed into something more over the years. It is a scrapbook of memories, the story of my life as put to melody. Hearing a song can take me back to an exact time, a moment to be relived and enjoyed or sometimes mourned. Music is a time machine and a comforter, a friend and supporter so I knew what I was listening to while I labored would be important. I would need all of my strength for this journey and I hoped that the right music would help build me up, give me quiet courage in the chaos. 

I had a lot of fun putting together my birth mix at the end of my pregnancy. Going through my archives and delving into some great music (and memories) was exactly what I needed. It took me away from all of the fretting and "oh my god, I'm really gonna have a baby" that comes around 37 weeks. It was a great little escape and when the time was right I am so pleased that I had such a perfect compilation of songs for the birth. 

I thought I'd share them with you.

Page France- Dogs

 

Grizzly Bear- Shift 

Joanna Newsom- Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie

"There are some mornings when the sky looks like a road
There are some dragons who were built to have and hold
And some machines are dropped from great heights lovingly
and some great bellies ache with many bumblebees
(and they sting so terribly)..."

Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins- Melt Your Heart

 Jeff Hansen- Losing A Year

Iron and Wine- Such Great Heights 
 "You will hear the shrillest highs
And lowest lows with the windows down
When this is guiding you home..."

Jose Gonzales- Heartbeats

Low- Over The Ocean

Mates of State- Nature and the Wreck 
"How I will protect
And how each day matters..."

Micah P. Hinson- For Your Eyes

Mogwai- Take Me Somewhere Nice

Mynabirds- Give It Time

Neko Case- I'm An Animal 
"Yes there are things that I'm still so afraid of 
But my courage is roaring like the sound of the sun..."

Owen- Put Your Hands On Me, My Love

Radical Face- Welcome Home, Son

                      - Asleep on a Train

Radiohead- No Surprises

Lambchop- I Will Drive Slowly (no video available)


Part Two soon to come. 

Namaste. 
Tara

Tunes: Sigur Ros

In making my birth playlist I have been revisiting a lot of music that I haven't listened to in some time. It has been quite the trip down memory lane to look back and sift through the songs that have been the soundtrack to the last several years of my life. In making this playlist I wanted to make sure that every song was hand-chosen, calming, and had personal meaning. Music has the ability to transport me to a very specific place and time, so I wanted to be assured that I would be recalling sweet and loving memories when listening. 

Obviously I'm not sure what emotional state I will be in during labor or if I'll even want music. Some women during the laboring process find music incredibly helpful, giving their mind something to focus on, easing the tension and pain while some only find it a distraction. So my plan is that when the time comes I want to give myself a some good listening options if I so desire. Call it a present to my future self.

Many of the songs that made the final cut hold strong personal significance (our first date/ Valentine's Day mixtapes/ what we were listening to the weekend we eloped) and as it turns out a lot of Sigur Ros is in the mix. I have used quite a bit of their music in my yoga classes since I began teaching as well as my personal practice. During my teacher training program I listened to Ágætis byrjun almost every night and am instantly taken back to the excitedness of that time upon hearing it. Those songs bring to me a place of anticipation and peace, a place that I hope to be as we introduce our little one to the world.

Namaste! 
Tara

Tunes: Alela Diane

Alela Diane's album To Be Still has been on heavy rotation this week in our house. With a heavier work load than I have become accustomed to, the sleepy folk mood of this album is a perfect match to my new schedule. The tracks have a gentle quality that lends wonderfully to a restorative yoga practice, crocheting in your rocking chair, or taking the first of many Spring sun soaked naps (all of which I have done this week).

"Thinking I'd like to look at your teeth
Lined up in perfect rows
A maze of children feeding orchard trees
Where the flat lands stretch inside your mouth
And when you laugh all the star thistles stumble out
The flat lands stretch inside your mouth
And when you laugh all the star-thistles stumble out"

- Dry Grass and Shadows by Alela Diane