Pregnancy Post: My Labor & Delivery Playlist

I am a music person. If I could have a soundtrack for my life, I totally would. I guess it started with dance lessons. My parents enrolled me at 2 and a half years old because I was leggy and awkward, and dance would help me gain some semblance of gracefulness. I've always had a response to music... fast and upbeat to get your heart pumping, slow and calm to relax, fast and angry to work through frustration, soft and sexy to get in the mood. And who can resist dancing (even just a little bit) when a favorite upbeat song comes on?

So, I decided to create a labor & delivery playlist. It's perfectly possible that zero music will be played during labor (I've never done this before and frankly don't have a lot of perspective to go on), but in the case of a long and arduous process, I know that a good way to distract myself from the icky parts (blood, needles, etc.) is to have some music ready to go. I listen to my playlist every now and then, just to get in the zone, and I thought I'd share my list here for prosperity. And yes, my taste in music is all over the place and "kind of lame." Whatever.

The Reasonable Blonde's Labor & Delivery Playlist (in no particular order)

1. Breathe - Michelle Branch

2. Come Baby Come - K7

3. Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Buble

4. Doing It All for My Baby - Huey Lewis & The News

5. Great Balls of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis (A throw to the infamous "ring of fire")

6. Hard On You - Rob Thomas

7. Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen

8. I Want a New Drug - Huey Lewis & The News

9. Scream - Michael Jackson ft. Janet Jackson

10. Push It - Salt-n-Pepa

11. Twist and Shout - The Beatles

12. I'm Coming Out - Diana Ross

13. Could It Be I'm Falling in Love - The Spinners

14. Safe and Sound - Capital Cities

15. Hourglass - Mindy Gledhill (I need tissues with this song!)

16. Push - Matchbox Twenty

17. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) - John Lennon

18. Closing Time - Semisonic (Did you know this song is actually about being born? It is.)

Some of these songs are more about adventure of labor itself (1, 4, 5, 8 - 11, 16, 18), and others are geared more from me to my son (2, 3, 13 - 15, 17). And some are from our baby's perspective, kind of (6, 7, 12).

So, some happy songs, some fun songs, and some borderline-angry songs. I figure it's a good combination to sum up every single emotion that will be involved in bringing new life into this world. There's one more song that I love hearing (despite not being a fan of the artist), but to my knowledge, this song isn't yet available on iTunes, but he's been performing it already on the talk show circuits. The song is Mom by Garth Brooks (get your tissues for this one too).