Pregnancy Dreams
I’ve had a few bizarre dreams in my second trimester. A few weeks ago I woke up crying. Due to a terrorist attack and a war on our homeland, all pregnant women and children were being evacuated to ’safe houses’ in my dream.
My husband, although in reality he’s past the age to enlist or be drafted into the military, was being recruited to fight. Several women told me to pack my bags as they shuttled me away to a luxury hotel. The hotel lobby is still clear in my mind, and I still get tears thinking about the terrifying dream.
Last night, I had another strange dream. In my dream, I awoke in a hospital bed after an emergency c-section to encounter a nurse whose bedside manner was only slightly better than Attila the Hun’s. It took awhile for the anesthesia fog to wear off, and then I realized I still hadn’t seen my daughter. The nurse refused to bring her to me, so I requested to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor promised to bring me my baby and, moments later, entered my room with a small Pomeranian dog, telling me it was my baby!
My husband finally appeared and went to look for the baby. Then I noticed that someone had cut off my wristband. (There were still indentations in my skin where it had been, because they had put it on too tight.) Fears of ‘baby-switching’ and kidnapping flood my mind, as I know that’s how the hospital matches up the babies with their parents.
I get out of the hospital bed, barely able to walk, and begin combing the halls for my baby girl. I enter a conference room and find my husband, ‘Nurse Ratchett’ and, oddly, the Editorial Director from my first job sitting there, all unconcerned. (If this were real life, I’m sure my husband would have been going ballistic.) That’s when I woke up.
This dream was less disturbing than the first, because I can pinpoint its origins. I’m sure this dream is rooted in my very real fears of baby-switching, which has been in the news lately, and our new neighbors? yappy dog, who barked incessantly all weekend.
In addition, one of my lingering pregnancy fears has been the need for an emergency c-section. It’s not that I feel c-sections are inherently bad or feel that they are less ‘womanly’ or that I will somehow have failed if I don’t have natural childbirth. My concerns are more practical; I saw the shape my sister was in following an emergency c-section, and want nothing to do with the entire situation or the lengthy healing process.
I’ve always had vivid dreams, so I’m sure this is only the beginning for me.
What about you? Did pregnancy spark any unusually vivid, disturbing dreams? Did you ever dream about your new baby: what she or he may look like, act like? Did your dreams match reality? I’d love to hear about your pregnancy dreams!
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