A guest article submitted to BabySignsDVD.com
When I first found out I was pregnant I was like most moms-to-be: absolutely thrilled. My husband and I decided early on that we were going to do certain things during and after my pregnancy to help with our child’s development, such as playing Mozart, reading aloud, eating organic and teaching our baby sign language. We had heard through some various pregnancy groups that babies can communicate much earlier than we give them credit, but due to the lack of development of their vocal cords, they aren’t able to articulate much. This is where the beauty of sign language comes in.
According to our doctor, basic motor function such as grasping and hand motions are one of the first things to develop in a baby. Some friends of ours at church gave us a book called Faith Speaks! Expressing God’s Word in Sign Language. We were appreciative at the gift, but had to chuckle a bit as this book is perhaps a tad advanced for someone three months old! They chuckled too and agreed, but commented that if we were going to learn sign language we might as well learn how to sign God’s word. Well we couldn’t argue with that!
As far as music goes, I’m not 100% convinced that Mozart is the only music that assists in a baby’s development, but I do know that I can only listen to little kid music for so long before I start to go crazy—so I figure that Mozart has the benefit of relaxing me and when I do finish listing to a symphony I do tend to feel about 10% smarter (sounds crazy I know.)
We have made a lot of major changes in our lives during the past five months. Everything we eat is now organic (and we feel so great, we’ll never go back to eating “regular” food), we listen to classical music, we spend our evenings reading aloud to each other and our unborn baby, and we have increased our sign language vocabulary to about three hundred signs, and most importantly we already feel a close bond with each other. My husband and I know that these quiet moments we have together won’t last much longer, but that’s okay, we are excited about the arrival of our little one and can’t wait to share the joys of life with our baby.
