I’m now 37 weeks along, which means Signe is full term and if she was born today she would likely need no interventions and would be perfectly healthy. It’s quite a milestone.

It also means that I could go into labor at any second. However, it could also be another 4-5 weeks. As a control freak, I am driven a bit crazy by this kind of unknown. So I’m doing what I can to retain some semblance of power. Her room is ready. Her clothes are washed. The car seat has been installed in my car. The hospital admission forms have been filled out and mailed in. I’ve started packing my hospital bag. And so now, my focus turns to the music I want piping out of my iPod while I’m in labor.

Not knowing if I’ll need something to help me relax or something to help energize me, I’ve been pondering the playlist for several weeks now. I was thinking I’d make a long mix of soothing sounds. But now I’m thinking I just want to write down a list of things that will suit whatever mood I’m in and, more importantly, won’t annoy me. Then I can just point to an artist on that list and make GTB put on what sounds good at the moment.

So far, the list consists of:

Feist
James Brown
Interpol
Death Cab for Cutie
Broken Social Scene/Kevin Drew
Radiohead (but only In Rainbows or OK Computer)
Sujan Stevens (but only Illinois)
Yo La Tengo

You’ll note that several of GTB’s favorites aren’t on that list. There’s no My Morning Jacket, Hold Steady, or Guided By Voices to speak of. I feel a little bad about that, but, like I told him last night, if we decide to have another kid, he can be the pregnant one. And then he can pick the music for when he’s working on getting 8 pounds of kicking, screaming flesh out of his pee-pee hole.

In the meantime, dear readers, do you have any suggestions for good laborin’ music?

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 11:24 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.