Crazy dreamland

Last night I had a series of stress dreams related to caring for an infant. I recently watched a documentary on dreams and apparently a practical function of dreams is to prepare you for possible disasters you are subconciously worried about and how to avoid them.

In my dream last night I had the baby very, very early... like at the stage I'm at now (almost 33 weeks). Somehow the baby popped out and was all of a sudden in my arms. Everyone was congratulating me, but I felt shocked and overwhelmed. I kept saying, "I don't even remember labour! I don't understand it! I thought it was supposed to be awful and painful!"

Then came the mad scramble to find diapers. Also to feed the baby. I kept focusing on one task realizing I had been neglecting another for too long. For example, the baby went without a diaper for several hours as I was trying to figure out breast feeding. :)

At one point I realized I needed baby wipes, but didn't have anyone to watch the baby. I said to myself, "I'll leave the house for 15 minutes and be right back with the wipes! The baby won't even realize I'm gone!" For some reason I figured if I left the baby on my bed it would be fine. (Yikes) I left and drove downtown, where apparently Kitchener now has a Canadian Tire on the main street. I quickly parallel parked and ran inside the store. The store was organized badly and stuff was all over the place, disorganized and completely mixed up. I decided since I was there already I should also buy a bunch of baby undershirts. I have no idea why I figured Canadian Tire had all this stuff but it made sense at the time. The whole time I was aware I needed to get back to the baby as quickly as possible. I searched and searched and couldn't find either of the items I needed. As I was deciding I needed to just give up already and get back to my baby, I realized I DID have wipes at home already and that I had completely forgotten about them! I ran outside and began searching for my car, but couldn't find it anywhere. I searched up and down a bunch of side-streets but just couldn't find it. I was in a mad panic at this point, knowing I had left the baby alone for far too long.

Somehow I got home, just before Luke got home (obviously I needed to hide it from him that I had left the baby alone by itself... I felt hugely relieved I beat him back to the house! Sneaky sneaky) ... only to find that somehow the baby had gotten down from the bed and rolled over to the stairs, and rolled ALL THE WAY DOWN THE STAIRS. I lunged down the stairs when I saw the little body lying at the very bottom. (I keep avoiding gender statements because in my dream the baby was neither a boy nor a girl. STRANGE.) It had some bruises on its face but otherwise looked happy to see me. I was horrified. I realized I had to tell Luke because he would wonder why there were bruises on the baby's face. All he said was, "well, we should get a baby gate for the stairs as soon as possible!"

So what did I learn from all this?

1) Never leave my baby unsupervised. As if I ever would!

2) Make sure to have essentials such as diapers, wipes and undershirts on hand BEFORE the baby is born.

3) BUY BABY GATES FOR ALL THE STAIRS.

4) Never try to do everything on my own - ask for help if I need it!

5) In preparing mentally for the baby, realize labour is just the beginning and not the end. Don't focus TOO much on labour between now and when the baby gets here because the real work starts when I bring my baby home.

When I woke up I said out loud, "baby, I'll never let you roll down the stairs!"

And I meant it. :)