My husband and I try to take a few minutes to talk directly to the baby every night. We knew when we found out we were four weeks pregnant that baby couldn’t hear us. Really, it was more an exercise for us to make baby seem more real. But we’ve continued, every night before bed, telling baby our hopes and dreams for him or her. What kind of behavior we expect (HA!) Or just telling baby what happened to us during the day.

It’s a soothing pre-sleep ritual for us now. I feed the fish, light a a candle that stays on the night stand and we start talking to the baby. It’s usually nothing vital. But now that we are 18 weeks, our baby should be able to actually hear us. So we want to add something to this little ritual. Playing baby some music every night.

The real question is, what kind of music?

I know there’s a lot of talk of playing classical music. I have a friend who is doing this right now for her little in utero girl. Just using her phone to play a couple of songs to her at night. And I think that’s one way to go. But honestly, we don’t listen to classical music for pleasure much in this house. Wouldn’t it make more sense if we played music we liked and listened to on the regular?

For me, I enjoy the music I belly dance to. Something with a dance-able beat. I suppose folks might call it Worldbeat. But on the other end of that spectrum, I’m a fan of the artist Meatloaf. Not sure the messages from Meatloaf’s songs are appropriate for babies, but he/she isn’t going to understand the words this early. Just the awesome beat and the killer guitar riffs.

Now, my hubs enjoys industrial, synthpop and other electronic based bands. I like them too, but I wouldn’t say they are my go-to music source. The lyrics in these songs are often not appropriate for babies either. But come on, the kid’s not going to know, right?

This past Sunday night, my husband chose YMO’s “Prologue & Epilogue.”

And on Monday night I chose Carly Simon’s “Touched By The Sun.”

I think we’re on the right path. Maybe. But at least we’re playing music that the man and I enjoy. And that’s gotta be important, right?

For the record, this is how I picture my baby feeling when listening to our musical selections for him or her.