Who needs the Baby Whisperer when You've Got Rascal Flatts!

WARNING: The information contained in this blog just may change your parenting life, forevah. You may have the urge to write fan letters, scream at the sight of them and in some cases may feel the need to mail them your undergarments. DON'T! It's inappropriate and gross, I'm sure they aren't interested.

This is something we've been keeping a secret since Bethany was a baby for fear that blogging about it would cause Murphy and his stupid laws to rear their really ugly heads. But it's time, the vault is being unlocked.

Curious yet? I bet you are. Know who I'm talking about? Oh, riiiight it's in the title, that's right I'm talking about Rascal Flatts. I don't believe in magic, but um these guys...they're magic. Or at least one of their songs is.

Back when I was pregnant with Bethany the movie Cars and had just been released. Corey being the cartoon, ahem I mean car lover that he is, insisted that we see it. We fell in love, it's such a cute movie and has become one of Bethany's favorites. And as much as I love Lightning McQueen and as cute as Mader is, it was the music that moved my soul. Like I've said many a time, this house and this girl have got the rhythm. I can't dance but I'm pretty sure that were it possible there would be music notes seeping from my skin. Oh, how I love a good song. I love the new stuff, appreciate the old stuff and much to my husbands chagrin, thoroughly enjoy country music.

Featured in the movie Cars is this song

I like the original version of this song but I luved this version. It was catchy, it was fresh and it was country! The movie finished, I hit iTunes, downloaded it and proceeded to spend the next 3 months listening to it about every 25 minutes. I was happy.

Jump ahead, Bethany is born. Life is amazing, exhausting and frustrating. She was a newborn, apparently those cute little bundles cry, a lot! Now she wasn't colicky and I'm not complaining because she was a pretty good baby but she definitely had a grumpy time from 8-9pm every. single. night! I tried singing to her and that helped some, we tried moving up bath/bed time, we tried walking, we tried changing her diaper and nothing really helped. We were stuck listening to the wail for an hour each night. One night in particular I'd had enough, I needed to hear something other than the sound of my daughter mixed with the pleading sounds of my own sing/song voice. With the intention of drowning out the sound for just a few minutes I turned to my computer and clicked.

Enter Rascal Flatts stage left....

Musical silence. While the tunes played not only did my little girl quit crying, she passed out! Just like that! I figured, oh sure she was just exhausted from crying and fell asleep. We made it through that night after about 3 more times of that song and things were good. Co-incidence? We figured for sure! However, not being one to leave things at that the next night when she started pulling on her grumpy pants we tried again, an low and behold - she quit crying and passed out. WE STRUCK GOLD! For the next 6 months or so, I heard Life is a Highway many, many, many times a day. I was sick of it but I was so grateful for it's help that I continued to click play. We had it on my iPod for in the car and it made road trips better. As Bethany became less of a tiny babe it's usefulness wore off and by 8 months she didn't have that grumpy time and she'd sooth herself. We still heard the song now and again and it made us smile, thinking of our silly little girl. We assumed it's magic was in the fact that she must've heard it in utero and it was a comfort sound.

Zip now to Audrey's birth. Again, amazing baby. Super happy but those first 3 months especially, crying is a common household sound. By chance one night after getting fed up with the sounds I laughingly headed to the computer shouting over my shoulder as I clicked play, "Wouldn't it be funny if..." and before I could finish my sentence, she quit crying. Looked at me for a few seconds and her eyes fluttered shut.

SHUT UP!

Co-incidence? Nope, Audrey too is almost instantly soothed by the sounds of Rascal Flatts, but only, that song. We've pulled it out many a time, and have been grateful for those guys on a few occasions. If I could adopt them, I would. I have a big house, the could sleep upstairs or better yet, in the bathtub. It's closer to the kids rooms, I could just turn on the hot water to wake them and the song would begin. Oh Rascal Flatts guys, we love you!

So there you have it folks. Magic in A minor (not exactly sure what key it's written in but you get the drift). I'd love to show you a video of said wonder song at work but we've never had the where with all to catch it on tape. Try it, what's it gonna hurt and when it works like I know it will, pop over and tell me about it.

Because really, who needs the Baby Whisperer when you've Rascal Flatts on your side?