I am so excited about today's Music and Motherhood interview with Whitney Drew! Not only is Whitney a fellow Rookie Mom, but she's a country music lover, as well. Whitney blogs over at Whitney Drew, and you can also find her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Take it, away, mama!
Just the other night the baby
was cryin
So I got out of bed rocked her awhile and I held her tight
And I told her it would be all right
My mind went back to a few years ago
We tried so long, we almost gave up hope
And I remember you comin' in and tellin me the news
Oh man we were livin, goin crazy in the kitchen
We danced and screamed and held each other tight
We laughed until we cried
So I got out of bed rocked her awhile and I held her tight
And I told her it would be all right
My mind went back to a few years ago
We tried so long, we almost gave up hope
And I remember you comin' in and tellin me the news
Oh man we were livin, goin crazy in the kitchen
We danced and screamed and held each other tight
We laughed until we cried
Little
did I know just how much these lyrics would ring true for me when I bought my
husband Chris, tickets to a Jason Aldean concert about 6 years ago. We had just started dating and I think I said
something cute in the card like, “I can’t wait to laugh until we cry with you”
not at all thinking about our future or how these lyrics would come true for us
and eventually be framed in our little girl’s nursery…
But
lets start the story from the beginning shall we?
I’m
Whitney, I live in Portland, OR and I blog over at Whitney Drew where you get a little bit
about everything that’s going on in my life.
My daughter Garrity {editor's note: she's beyond adorable} was born this past February and I simply cannot
believe that I have a 3 month old. Time
is flying way, way too fast. My husband
is Chris, and while I could go on and on about how wonderful these past 6 years
with him have been, we’ll focus our story on music for the sake of this post.
Chris
and I both love country music, which is a good thing considering I said I would
never marry someone who didn’t love it as much as I did. Early dates were to
country concerts…I’ve lost track of how many artists we’ve now seen. When Chris proposed, he mirrored the lyrics
in Brad Paisley’s “Then” which then became our first dance song, which we
danced to at our wedding in a 100-year-old barn wearing our cowboy boots J
Fast-forward
a couple years and many more country concerts, and after months of trying to
have a baby we finally conceived Garrity with the help of Clomid and an
IUI. We found out we were pregnant on a
road trip through the south (which of course included a stop in Nashville…the
home of country music). And while we
didn’t go crazy in the kitchen, we did go a little crazy in Charleston,
SC.
We
immediately started planning out the theme to the nursery and knew it had to
have something to do with country music.
We decided boy or girl, the focal point would be lyrics to country music
songs that talked about little boys or girls. For 20 weeks we kept notes on
songs, making sure to write down anything that we thought would work and when
we finally found out we were having a girl we swung into action, narrowing down
all of our choices to 7 songs.
Hey
Pretty Girl – Kip Moore
My
Little Girl – Tim McGraw
How
bout them cowgirls – George Strait
Always
be my angel – Jake Owen
Dance,
Baby, Dance – Chris Cagle
Laughed
until we cried – Jason Aldean
Never
Grow Up – Taylor Swift.
We
commissioned a friend of ours to write out the lyrics in calligraphy and it
turned out amazing! And during this
entire process we of course were playing music to my belly. On the way to work in the morning I’d talk to
Garrity and tell her about the different songs and artists on the radio and
then at night we’d play our favorite country songs to my belly, she even went
to a couple country concerts in utero!
All
along I thought Hey Pretty Girl would be the song I’d sing to her the most once
she arrived. It’s the one that was
really the brainchild of the whole nursery theme, I mean the lyrics talk about
a mama giving birth to a baby who has her eyes, but surprisingly, the song I
sing to Garrity the most, and the one that chokes me up every single time is
Taylor Swifts, “never grow up.” I lose
it every single time.
Oh darling, don't you ever
grow up
Don't you ever grow up, just stay this little
Oh darling, don't you ever grow up
Don't you ever grow up, it could stay this simple
I won't let nobody hurt you, won't let no one break your heart
And no one will desert you
Just try to never grow up, never grow up
Don't you ever grow up, just stay this little
Oh darling, don't you ever grow up
Don't you ever grow up, it could stay this simple
I won't let nobody hurt you, won't let no one break your heart
And no one will desert you
Just try to never grow up, never grow up
