Write Your Own Lullaby

Writing a personal lullaby can really help you to bond with your child, even before it's born. Putting your thoughts and dreams into words will remind both you and him of how much you love him every time you sing it. It can also help you to clarify the values you want your child to possess, in a loving and undemanding way that they can understand and appreciate. A child that grows up hearing you sing night after night about the kind of person you want her to be can't help but understand what your dreams and expectations for her are. She'll appreciate the fact that you took the time to write a song just for her, and it will help her realize how special and important she is to you.

The idea of writing a song may seem like a daunting task, but you don't have to be especially gifted musically or artistically to create an original lullaby. You just need love, some time, and a little help from a recording artist-there are lots of beautiful songs already in existence that can be easily modified to fit your own style and purpose. For my son's lullaby, I used a song called "I Promise" by Jaci Velasquez, which is a beautiful song about a young Christian woman's commitment to remain pure until marriage. This may seem like an odd choice for a newborn baby boy, but it just proves that any song can be personalized any way you want.

The most important thing is to find a song with a tune that you like, with lyrics simple enough to give you a starting point. From there, you can change a few words, or all of the words, to make it work for you.

I started out with the chorus of "I Promise," which is as follows:

So I promise to be true to You
To live my life in purity, as unto You
Waiting for the day
When I hear You say
Here is the one I have created
Just for you.

I was listening to this song one day when I was pregnant, and the words "This is the man I have become" just popped into my head, and I decided to re-write the song for my baby boy, creating my "Promise" to him. The chorus of Noah's lullaby took shape pretty quickly:

So I promise to be good to you
I'll let you know that I love you, no matter what
Waiting for the day
When I hear you say
This is the man I have become
Because of you.

I really enjoyed working on this song while I was pregnant-thinking about the man my son would become, and what I wanted him to hear me sing every day. I wanted him to know how much I love him, and that I'll always be there for him, so I sing about that in the first verse. My faith is very important to me, and I wanted him to understand that, so I use the second verse to go into more detail about God's love.

It's a very personal song now, just for Noah, and I don't like to sing it in front of other people-including my husband. But it's part of our nightly bedtime routine, and Noah drifts off to sleep every night hearing this very special Promise from his Mommy.

I'm currently working on a lullaby for my baby girl, who's expected in December. This time I'm using "You," another song by Jaci Velasquez-she's obviously one of my favorite singers, and a lot of her songs are beautiful and simple, so they're easy to use as lullabies.

I encourage every mom or expectant mother to write a special song for their child-it's never too late, and you'll never regret it.