My Secret Weapon

When Abby was a newborn and still had her days and nights mixed up, I would pace the basement with her at all hours of the night. One night, to pass the time more than anything else, I decided to sing to her. Bette Midler's "The Rose" was the only song I could remember in its entirety in my zombied state, so I'd sing it over and over to her. Once she'd fall asleep, I'd switch to "100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" to keep me from putting her down too soon. It rarely worked. As soon as I laid her in the Pack'N'Play in the basement, she'd scream and we'd start all over again. Even later when she was sleeping better, but still waking up a couple times a night, we'd sit in the glider together while I sang "The Rose."

I've played it many times for her on cd since then, but she's never shown any interest. Until now. On the way to Damon's work last Friday, Abby was really fussy in the car, so I played the cd that was already in the player. The song to come on was "The Rose." Instantly, she quieted down and went into this weird stoned state. I kept checking back at her to see if she was still awake because she was so quiet. I played it over and over until we got there, and she didn't make a peep the whole way. It's worked every time since then too.