Helloooo in there

Being a psychology undergrad I got to take quite a few child and developmental psychology courses in my youth.  One of the most fascinating things I learned in one of them was that babies can hear from the time their ears develop at 16 weeks, and studies have shown that they can actually remember repetitive things that they heard in utero, such as a bedtime story read every night by a parent, or a particular song that was played very often.  Of course, when I found out I was pregnant I started planning what to read and to play when our little one got to the 16 week milestone, if only to arm ourselves with something that was scientifically proven to be soothing.  After a lot of thought I settled on "Goodnight Moon" for the book (it was one of my favorites and nice and short) and "Rainbow Connection" as covered by Jason Mraz for the song (I wanted to pick something I wouldn't mind listening to over and over).  I posted the youtube version of "Rainbow Connection" below in case any one wants to listen along with her.  It's very dreamy, and I think it helped Sandi's son fall asleep once!

I have been reading to her every night since she hit 16 weeks, except for nights when I was traveling, or when it was Jeremy's turn.  I think he is still considering reading something different to her, probably something by Dr. Seuss, but on his first night he chose Fox in Sox (one of the only Seusses we have right now), which is a very long tongue twister book.  To his credit he got through it, and she was moving around a lot while he did it, but it was a little too challenging to do every other day.  Actually, I think she likes it better when he reads since she moves a lot more while he's doing it, perhaps because of his nice, deep voice :-).  Since then he has stuck with "Goodnight Moon" too, at least until I can find our own copy of Green Eggs and Ham on my thrifty travels.

Side note: has any one else read "Goodnight Moon" closely lately?  It's a little strange, in that the random old lady appears out of thin air, hushes the kid, can only be seen by the kittens, then disappears again.  She has no name.  No one else sees her.  I think she's a ghost.  End of aside.

We have been having lots of fun with this whole process, prepping ourselves for when we have a family bedtime routine with a little girl instead of a little bump.  It is so sweet to spend time all together, to hear Jeremy read and to feel her roll around, then to play her music until it's time to sleep.  May we remember these times when we are seriously considering reading her "Go the F*** to Sleep!" and praying for her to finally zonk out!