For two nights this week my daughter has been up crying in the middle of the night, inconsolable. She’s been fed, diapered, swaddled, burped, given her medicine and fed again to only continue crying.
That’s when I resort to pacing and rocking her. It wasn’t working so I unintentionally started singing, “hush little baby.” It started out as me just whispering to her, hush little baby, but then the words to the song starts and I start singing,
Hush little baby, don’t say a word,
Mama’s going to buy you a mocking bird,
If that mocking bird won’t sing,
Mama’s going to buy you a diamond ring,
If that diamond ring won’t shine,
Mama’s going to learn the words to this nursery rhyme!”
For the life of me I can’t get past the first two verses of this song, and I didn’t even get those right. Last night I just started to make things up and to hum part of it to keep the melody going.
It worked. Within 20 minutes she was asleep in my arms and back in her crib.
Hush little baby, don’t say a word,
Mama’s Googled the song,
Next time she sings to you,
She’ll know the words!
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ABOUT ALICIA: Alicia is the founder of Balancing Motherhood.com. Last year, she managed to stay sane while completing an MBA, working full-time, blogging, and still baking amazing birthday cakes — all while raising a young family at home.
Sara says
May 13, 2009 at 11:53 amLOL. I was the same way! I used to know all kinds of songs and nursery rhymes and about halfway through my pregnancy, I realized I didn’t anymore. At my shower, we played fill in the blank with nursery rhymes and songs, and no one really knew all the words! I felt better. 🙂 And now I have a cheat sheet.
However, I still find it better to sing pop music to my baby. I change the lyrics. Right now our favorite is “Pumkin face” instead of “poker face.” Thanks Lady Gaga, whoever you are! 🙂
sara says
May 13, 2009 at 5:56 pmI love singing this song to my daughter and early on (before I googled!), I too made up the words. Depending on my mood, it could get a little crazy. Now that she’s older (3) I still do make up the words sometimes…to make her laugh. Still love rocking her 🙂
Melissa says
May 15, 2009 at 2:40 pmI find that when I do this with my son, he will settle down but the second that I put him into his crib, he’ll start screaming again, so unfortunately, I’ve had to go nights where I get him, change him and make sure that he’s otherwise ok and have had to let him cry. it totally breaks my heart but nothing else seems to work. At least yours worked!! 🙂