The Ultimate Delivery Room Playlist

I've been wanting to make this post for about . . . let's see . . . eight weeks now? But I've definitely had my hands busy. And my arms. And my lap. And my boobs. Most definitely the boobs as I keep our growing boy growing incredibly strong (and far too fast - folks weren't kidding!). But now that I have missed getting this up before two more dear girlfriends gave birth to their baby boys, I made it a priority for the other mothers looking for the ultimate delivery room playlist.

As many know, music is a huge part of our lives. From our tour company to the town we love to how we met and who I come from, there is always a soundtrack playing somewhere in our personal lives.

I spent a lot of time laboring (pun well intended) on the playlist I would have while I labored. Jamie concentrated on how the list would be played and pressing play when the time seemed right. And even though I was in a delirium of pain when he cued the tunes, I'm so glad he did. 

During those last final hours, when the pain relief had kicked in and I was pushing my heart out - literally, because there is no doubt my heart now lives on the outside - Jamie, our delivery nurse, the doc and I began to wonder which song little Walden Weatherford would arrive to.

Of course, it would be one of Dolly Parton's. At 2:17 p.m., Walden arrived to a song that a dear friend (you've seen her video work here) gave me when I needed to pick myself up off the ground. Lyrics from the song "Light of a Clear Blue Morning" go:

Cause I am strong and I can prove it

And I got my dreams to see me through

It's just a mountain, I can move it

And with faith enough there's nothing I can't do

And I can see the light of a clear blue morning

And I can see the light of brand new day

I can see the light of a clear blue morning

And everything's gonna be all right

It's gonna be okay

That song arrived with Walden like a gift card on a gift from God. Right after that, as I held my newborn in my arms, experiencing the most precious moment of my life, the next installment of Dolly cooed, "And I'll always love you . . . " Even my doc looked up from post-delivery and said, "Now this one is an appropriate song, isn't it?" Once again, the force that is Dolly Parton was there. 

But Dolly wasn't the only artist in the delivery room that day. Here is the song list that got me through (almost) 12 hours of bringing our baby boy into the world. In the order on my I-pod:

1. Alabama Shakes: "Hold On" and "You Ain't Alone"
2. Aretha Franklin: "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman" and "Son of a Preacher Man"
3. Band of Horses: "The Funeral" (I know . . . but Jamie and I courted to this song)
4. Bonnie Raitt and John Prine: "Angel from Montgomery"
5. Carrie Rodriguez: "Got Your Name On It," "Before You Say Another Word," and "I Don't Want to Play House Anymore" (great for those contractions!)
6. Cake: "The Distance"
7. Curtis Mayfield: "The Making of You"
8. Carney: "Testify"
9. Davin McCoy: "These Walls" and "The Sun"
10. Drive-by Truckers: "Two Daughters and a Wife," "Paint Houses" and "Purgatory Line"
11. Dolly Parton: "Better Get to Livin,'" "Jesus & Gravity," "Only Dreamin,'" "Light of a Clear Blue Morning," "I Will Always Love You," "Rockin' Years," "To Know Him is to Love Him" (featuring Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris)
12. Elvin Bishop: "Fooled Around and Fell in Love"
13. Etta James: "Hold Back the Tears," "How Do You to Speak to an Angel?" 
14. Fleet Foxes: "White Winter Hymnal," "Your Protector"
15. Gov't Mule: "Beautifully Broken," "Soulshine," "I Shall Return"
16. James Taylor: "Sweet Baby James" and "Fire and Rain"
17. Jason Isbell: "Decoration Day"
18. Madonna: "Like a Prayer"
19. Marshall Tucker Band: "Fire on a Mountain" and "Can't You See"
20. Lynyrd Skynyrd: "Simple Man"
21. My Morning Jacket: "I'm Amazed"
22. Modern Skirts: "N.Y. Song"
23. Otis Redding: "I've Been Loving You Too Long," "That's How Strong My Love Is," "Pain in My Heart," "Down in the Valley," "Try a Little Tenderness"
24. Percy Sledge: "When a Man Loves a Woman," "Warm and Tender Love," "The Dark End of the Street," "Adorable One," "My Special Prayer" and "Bring It on Home to Me"
25. The Edwin Hawkins Singers: "Oh Happy Day"
26. I-Nine: "Same in Any Language"
27. Priscilla Ahn: "Dream"
28. Loretta Lynn & Jack White: "Mountain Top"
29. Lizz Wright: "Old Man"
30. Mahalia Jackson: "How Great Though Art," "Highway to Heaven"
31. Sugarland: "Fly Away"
32. Bonnie Somerville: "Winding Road"
33. Sam & Dave: "Hold On, I'm Coming"
34. T-Bird and the Breaks: "All the Blame"
35. Prince: "Future Baby Mama"
36. Johnny Cash: "Bridge Over Troubled Water"
37. Lionel Richie: "Easy" (featuring Willie Nelson), "Hello" (featuring Jennifer Nettles), "Lady" (featuring Kenny Rogers), "Stuck on You" (featuring Darius Rucker)
38. The Pointer Sisters: "Yes We Can, Can"
39. Sister Rosetta Tharpe: "Sit Down"
40. The Rolling Stones: "Wild Horses"
41. Widespread Panic: "Climb to Safety"
42. Tom Petty: "Free Fallin'"
43. Miranda Dodson: "Try Again"
44. Roberta Flack: "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face"

And there you have it. I culled it all from my i-Pod during the last days of pregnancy, and I'm so grateful music was there for us - all three of us - during one of the most trying, strenuous, beautiful and celebratory time of our lives. Rock-a-bye.

 

Mother Nature

Today, I found a piece of cereal in my slipper. I haven’t quite mastered the art of eating breakfast while standing, especially when there is a sling attached to me. Later, as I was undoing the sling, I found even more crumbs and gently brushed them off my unfazed baby.

To say this has been nothing but wine and roses would be more obscene than the noises my son makes when he dirties his diaper after diaper. The simplest of tasks – things like putting baby pictures in an album or updating this blog or finishing up on thank you notes – seem light years away. I suddenly look back on my life and remember a simpler time when I could literally do whatever I wanted to do. And to think I ever thought that was stressful?

Easy it is not. Demanding and taxing and tolling it most certainly is. But natural . . . Natural is the best way I can describe it. There is just something so instinctual about this. Primal, too. I am that mare who lets her wobbly foal nudge and head-bump her into feeding after feeding. I am that cat who wants to clean and preen her kitten. I am that dog who is constantly sniffing him, making sure all is well. I am that wild sal who looks like a mean, hot mess but is tender and soft when it comes to her young. I am that mama bear stressing, nuzzling and teaching my demanding, precious cub . . . and who would fight to her death to protect him.

Walden is now a month old. He changes every day. Two pounds heavier, and I already get the sinking feeling he is growing up too fast. He remains a good baby. There is always an answer to his whimpers and cries. It just comes down to if mommy and daddy are good enough to figure it out.

Figuring it out we try. Through the bleary nights and fussy moments, daddy and I give it all we’ve got. We grow from who we were as a couple. We embrace who we are as a new family. We beam at the twinkles of new life and new love. And as we settle into our nest, we fan our feathers around our little hatchling, bringing us all comfort and uncontrollable joy. 

What Not to Say to Pregnant Women - The Video

Remember my previous post rant about the annoying things people say to pregnant women? Well, thanks again to my filmmaker buds Tabitha and Stephanie, I gathered a group of pregnant girlfriends together and filmed our own version of "Sh#t People Say," which included our own creative call and response. Thanks to the baby mamas who were good sports about filming this with us - Lauren Morrill Ragusea, Betsy Fitzgerald and Heather Knowles. Watch, laugh, take heed and be warned.  

Dear Son, Meet Macon

Below is my original article that was published in the Macon Telegraph's Out & About section where I share my hopes and dreams of my hometown with our newest resident and my precious love. Consider it a love letter to both.

To My Newest Newcomer, Welcome Home

Jessica Walden

It didn’t take much to rock my world in an instant. On June 28, at 2:17 in the afternoon, I was cradling one of Macon’s newcomers in my arms and fell into the deepest trances I’ll ever know when my newborn son’s eyes locked with mine. 

Welcome home, Jameson Walden Weatherford. You’re going to do just fine here. 

For a long time now, I’ve dreamed of how we’ll share our hometown with you. I’ve watched the children splash in the waterfalls and streams of Washington Park on a Second Sunday and wondered of the glee you’ll feel when the running water washes over your toes – all while live music plays and your community surrounds you like one big picnic blanket. I hope you’ll grow to ask me over and over, is it Second Sunday yet?

Your daddy is already anxious to promenade you around Tattnall Square Park, where you will enjoy nature, concerts and events in the backyard of our College Hill neighborhood. Without a doubt as you grow to know the landscape of Tattnall, you’ll also quickly learn the magic of the Mercer Bears.

Construction has begun on the in-ground slide that will coast down Coleman Hill. I imagine our outdoor lunches we’ll have looking over the steeples of our city and the cupola of the Hay House before we scoot down towards downtown, where we’ll wonder the sidewalks, and I’ll tell you stories about folks named Otis, Little Richard and Pearly Brown.

See son, we’re calling you Walden, a nod towards your Macon roots that run deep. They are roots that are intertwined with an amazing story of American music sprung from this city stranger than any fairy tale. 

Your great uncle Phil was knee-deep in it. And he took our family with him, changing their course from newspaper routes and men’s clothing sales to managing artists like Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Percy Sledge, the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd all right here in your hometown. 

But if there is anything I want you to take from this is that it wasn’t about the gold records and royalties. All of this began during a time when the south forced black and white people apart. Through music and the friendships that were formed, your family helped break barriers that I want you to never take for granted.  

And that’s not all, sweet son. There is a poet and a musician in your blood. Your mother’s mother is a Lanier, and we can trace those roots to your great ancestor Sidney. Just down the road from your home, we’ll walk the brick roads of High Street, and I’ll show you the cottage where the true founding father of the southern music movement was born. I hope you’ll love the words we’ll discover, and the amazing history we’ll uncover as we trace the footsteps of Macon’s famous sons and daughters. 

And then there are the lyrics. May Macon’s songs be your lullabies. May your babbles be your own “wop bop a loo bop” May you know the wind in your hair as we roll down Highway 41 with church bells ringing everywhere. May you try a little tenderness with all that you touch. And finally, my only son, may you be a simple kind of man. May you be something you love and understand.    

Welcome to Macon, Walden. I know you’ll love it here.