The pitter-patter of little beats

I can't believe it's here! That's right, the third trimester! It really is shocking how quickly it's happened this time around. Although this month brings words like "mucus plug" and "sciatica" into my vocabulary, it also brings what is definitely my favorite prenatal activity...music time! 

You start reading reports very early on about how your baby can hear everything you say and will slowly begin to identify your voice. While this is amazing and touching, it also leads to days where you just want to sit, in silence, while pondering what exactly that baby has heard. These days I cringe as I realize that I'm more and more like Ma Kettle. I feel like I'm either standing on the porch, hollerin' at the dog or issuing idle threats to The Boy about what will happen if he doesn't finish his breakfast. Okay, part Ma Kettle, part Joan Crawford. I sometimes imagine that this child will be born already able to talk and its first words will be, "I promise to pick up my socks, Mama, I promise. Just tell me what they are and I'll do it." 

While pregnant with Flynn, I often felt hyper-aware of what he was hearing and imagined him soaking it all up, like a little sponge, floating around in my stomach. These thoughts would later lead me to ask ridiculous questions like, "I wonder if he hits children because I had to reprimand so-and-so at work while I was pregnant?" I then remember the huge steps I took to avoid fetal angst...like tucking my iPod earbuds into the gigantic waist of my pants and letting him enjoy Ibrahim Ferrer during especially boring meetings, or giving him his nightly rounds of classical music. We switched to opera just once and watched in horror as he began to kick and wiggle violently, then moved across my entire body in a way that made it look like he actually stood up and tried to shove his way out through my ribcage. Chris watched in wonder as I began to yell, "Get it out! I can't take it! This is too Sci-Fi! I hated that scene in Spaceballs!"

This week I've been dusting off my special pregnancy headphones and pondering our first playlist, which will be an amended version of some CDs I made called, "What Day Is It?". I think it will go something like this:

1. Who Loves the Sun - The Velvet Underground

2. My Cherie Amour - Stevie Wonder

3. Air - Talking Heads

4. L.E.S. Artistes - Santogold

5. Pink Moon - Nick Drake

6. A Nod On Hold - Ms. John Soda

7. Piazza, New York Catcher - Belle & Sebastian

8. Me And My Charms (String Version) - Kristin Hersh

9. Run Devil Run - Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins

10. Five Feet High and Rising - Johnny Cash

11. I Want You - Bob Dylan

12. Angels and Devils - Echo and the Bunnymen

13. The Wind Cries Mary - Jimi Hendrix

14. NYC - Interpol

15. I'm A Lonely Little Petunia (In An Onion Patch) - Imogen Heap

16. There's An End - Holly Golightly

17. La Vie En Rose - Edith Piaf

18. The Wind - Cat Stevens

19. Have Mercy - Loretta Lynn

20. Slip Away - Clarence Carter

21. The Night - Morphine

22. A Melody From the Sky - The Sons of the Pioneers

23. Redondo Beach - Patti Smith

24. Vampire - Antsy Pants

25. Across the Universe - Rufus Wainwright

26. Sunshowers - M.I.A.

27. I Was a Lover - TV on the Radio

28. Hyper-Ballad (Live) - Bjork

I know, a little pedestrian, but what did you expect for the first session? This? Or, maybe I'll go the easy route, and just play one of my favorite soundtracks of all time, one that pretty much sums it up today - this one.