I know what you are thinking, “What the heck is she talking about? There is no way Nirvana’s 90’s grunge anthem Smells Like Teen Spirit is going to help put my baby to sleep!”

Come on! Who WOULDN’T want this guy to sing your baby to sleep?

Oh contraire, mon frere! (FYI… I have no idea if that’s proper French but in English I’m hoping it translates to “On the contrary, my friend.”) My son fell asleep to this song all the time when he was a newborn. Okay, I’ll explain as I know you probably still doubt me and/or are ready to call Child and Family Services for heavy rock noise abuse against a defenceless baby.

For some reason, when my son was born I assumed that the post-pregnancy hormones would magically turn me into the mom who knew all 100 lullaby songs in order to gently sing her baby to sleep.  Turns out, like my many other ideas of motherhood dreamed up while pregnant, this definitely did not happen! In fact, due to what is commonly known as “baby brain,” which I believe is your baby actually taking a large chunk of your brain with him on his way out, I ended up only remembering 3 lullabies in full and several in which I could only recall the first two lines.

My repertoire included Rock-a-bye Baby, (which is actually a really disturbing song when you think about it. How is singing to your baby about him falling from a tree a soothing concept?) Baa Baa Black Sheep, (a great song if we still lived in the 1800’s where men were called masters!) and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star ( I have nothing but respect for this one..an all-time classic if you ask me).

For the ones in which I only knew the first few lines, I simply covered my tracks by making up the rest of the words. I.e. “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know dear how much I love you…Ummmmmm…Even when your diaper’s full of poo!”  (I know, not too shabby eh?)

After about two weeks of singing the same three songs to Grayson, I was at my wits’ end and ready to concede that my son would be stunted from his lack of creative musical stimulus. Luckily a mommy friend of mine saved me in my time of redundant music need by giving me this CD:

It’s from the Rockabye Baby set of albums which take some of the most popular rock bands of the 70s, 80s and 90s that we (the parents) loved to listen to and converts them into soothing lullabies with the use of xylophones, pianos and flutes. And don’t worry, they’re instrumental only so your baby has no idea he’s listening to songs about sex, drugs and rock and roll (but you are!).

I really can’t get over how good these albums are  and that even though they’re instrumental lullabies, you can still easily recognize the songs that flash you back to your teenage youth and even sing along with you want. And if Nirvana wasn’t your cup of tea growing up, they have many others like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Tool, Metallica, Pink Floyd and even Nine Inch Nails!

My son enjoyed all of the albums but for some reason Nirvana’s Smells like Teen Spirit put him to sleep every time. And I also must warn you that these albums are so soothing that they may also put YOU to sleep so use caution and make sure not to listen to them while driving!

So if you’re like me and can’t possibly find the brain cells to learn new lullabies or are currently going insane from singing Twinkle, Twinkle for the 1000th time, I would highly recommend investing in some of the Rockabye Baby albums…if not for your own sanity, then for your child’s.

Coupon tip of the week:  Stock up on kid’s winter clothing now for next year.  Most stores are putting most of their winter and outerwear stock on for 50-75% off and if for some reason the clothes end up being too small by next winter, you can always resell them online, donate them to a charity or give them as Christmas presents or baby shower gifts.