When my son was still a baby. We used to sing him countless lullabies before him falling to sleep. His mom has her own set of lullabies and I have my own. I remember Twinkle, twinkle little star and You are my Sunshine were instantly his favorites. They're the songs we use to sing him when he was still in the womb. But if sometimes this don't work, his mother sings the Uyayi, a Philippine lullaby or sometimes she would turn to the bible and sing Psalms. Those often works and he gets to sleep soundly.
When it's my turn, I would exhaust all of the lullabies that I am familiar with and repeat them over and over before he goes to sleep. And most of the time, I get tired of singing them that I have to include other nursery rhyme songs, old mother goose and other bunch of kid songs that I know. There was a time when I have to really sing grown-up songs to make it more fun. I simply turned to the music of the Carpenters as their songs are my favorites. So, I hummed and sung, and instantly turned their melodic tunes into my baby's lullaby. From Top of the World to There's a Kind of Hush, and from Rainy Days and Mondays to Sing, those made my sleepless nights fun. And the thing is, now that my baby is a toddler, one of songs he loves singing is Sing. Everytime he hears the part La la la la la la.... he'd sing his part too.
Speaking of lullabies, I was curious of the song Rock-a-bye-baby which was one of the songs I became familiar with. The tune is undeniably a lullaby but its lyrics felt eerie. Who would in his right state of mind hangs a baby on top of a tree for the wind to rock and just let it fall when the bow breaks? I sincerely don't have the slightest idea of how the writer came out with such a song. So I consulted the ever dependable Mr. Google and came out Wikipedia's answer.
"...Originally titled "Hushabye Baby", this nursery rhyme was said to be the first poem written on American soil. Although there is no evidence when the song was written, it may date from the 1600s. It is rumoured that it was written by a young pilgrim who sailed to America on the Mayflower. He was said to have observed the way Native American women rocked their babies in birch bark cradles, which were suspended from the high branches of trees, allowing the wind to rock the baby to sleep. However, the branches holding the cradles steady had a danger of breaking, causing the cradle to fall and the baby in it to get hurt...."
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