It has taken me a long time to get round to writing this post but at least I now have the experience of two babies to draw on! The photo on the right was taken nearly three years ago when Oliver was almost two months old. I was preparing for my first recital after having him and he woke up when I started to play so I bounced him on my lap while I practiced the Lennox Berkeley Sonatina. My Facebook caption to this photo at the time observed all the bopping was very good for his wind, a fact reinforced when I moved on to Hamilton Harty’s In Ireland and he promptly did a poo. The left hand photo was taken today, with a three-month-old Lucy – again I find myself preparing for a first post-baby recital with a small person who will not let me put them down! She tolerated the Fauré Fantaisie in the sling but got a bit cross during the Gaubert Sonata.
Overall, I have found practicing around newborn babies has been easier than I feared. Physically it is easier to play than it was late in the pregnancies – it is so nice to be able to breathe deeply again! Practically, Oliver was easier than Lucy – he slept best when it was noisy and generally fell asleep the moment I got my flute out. I have photos somewhere of him lying under the piano on a blanket while I rehearsed with my awesome duo partner Jemima, who was always very accepting of feeding and nappy breaks (it was normally a good excuse for another cup of tea). Even top-octave piccolo practice when I had to get my marching music back up to scratch did not interrupt Oliver’s slumber! Lucy is proving a little more awkward – she seems to sleep better when it is quiet and often wakes up if I try and practice during a nap, but as long as she is not hungry she does seem content to fall asleep in the sling while I make noise a few inches above her head. It is also, inevitably, more awkward to practice this time round as the toddler only has a day and a half in childcare. I used to be able to practice during his nap. Now chances are if he is napping I am feeding Lucy, and if she is napping I am playing with Oliver. This is not insurmountable however – if I am sufficiently organised (or desperate!) I can delay his nap until Lucy has had a monster feed, then try and fit in half an hour or so while she is happy and he is asleep. Not enough for me to feel confident about my forthcoming recital yet but better than nothing!
I enjoyed getting back into playing pretty quickly. My first recital after Oliver came when he was three months old – a programme of British music in Sheffield Cathedral. My parents-in-law live not far from there so they came and pushed him round in his pram while I performed. He was very good for them but he did let out one loud excited shriek during a quiet bit which echoed around the cathedral, which was funny but rather distracting – I think they took him out after that! This next recital will be when Lucy is four months old, in the Wesley Chester series. We will have to see how it goes! Both times I was out gigging with the band even earlier. After Oliver it was a regimental dinner around 8 weeks postpartum. With Lucy it was a whole evening of background piano music (my first piano gig in over a decade, which is a whole story in itself….), also around 8 weeks postpartum. These brought different challenges – Oliver took a bottle well but didn’t sleep, Lucy (at that point) didn’t sleep much or take a bottle! It was good for me to get out and make music though.
I should add the caveats that I only returned to playing so soon because practicing made me happy, and the majority of engagements I took on in the first six months were low stress with minimal rehearsal time. The concerts themselves were some of the only times in these early months that I was out without the baby and I really valued spending that time doing something I loved. There were a couple of concerts I had to pull out of last minute because Oliver was ill – that was ok, everyone was very understanding. There were also days (and weeks) that practice was more effort than it was worth due to no sleep, growth spurts, jabs, illnesses etc. That was ok too. My advice would be to do what you can when you can and trust that it will all work out – it normally does somehow. Plus all this music round the house must be good for the baby’s development – Oliver’s first sounds were very tonal and he now has a fine repertoire of nursery rhymes!
Rachel Johnson Music - Blog 