Let me tell you something, people. I am a sweet potato powered locomotive chugging away toward my goals. This week I managed to book our doula, find a pediatrician, and get my pertussis vaccine. Boo yeah.
What's next? I still need to add the last few items to our baby bug-out bag, go shopping for the leftover stuff on our registry, and put together our labor playlist.
What's a labor playlist, you ask? Well, our midwives recommend putting together a long playlist of empowering music to help get us through labor. The idea is to help relax you during the early stages, then pump you up when it's time to start pushing. While some folks opt for the drumming and chanting sort of music for labor, I'm going to go ahead and take my yoga instructor's advice.
"I've got news for you, girls," she said. "Enya is NOT going to help you push out your baby."
Better to go with something loud and driving, like heavy metal, if you're into that. A quick poll around the room revealed some pretty exciting content on other ladies' playlists. My favorite suggestion that evening was Danzig. As someone who has worked out to the Misfits and Faith No More many times, I can tell you that hard rock can be mighty motivating.
My plan is to lump a ton of albums into three different playlists, one mellow list for early labor, a medium tempo mix for the mid-way point, then a kill-em-all, freak-out, mega-kickass mix for push time. I guess that would involve the kind of thing you might play during the last leg of a marathon.
Some things going on our mellow mix:
- Iron & Wine
- The Fruit Bats
- The 6ths
- Magnetic Fields
- Sade
- Chris Isaac
- Otis Redding
- Michael Kiwanuka
- Ray Lamontagne
- Willie Nelson
- Sparklehorse
Some things going on the medium tempo mix:
- Weezer
- Maritime
- Shovels & Rope
- Hayes Carll
- Belle & Sebastian
- Best Coast
- Page France
Some things going on our pumped up mix:
- Mates of State
- Misfits
- Faith No More
- Cake
- Outkast
- St. Vincent
- The Strokes
Runners, mamas, can I get some more suggestions?