Monday, June 14, 2010

Nightmares on Pregnancy Street

 
I kept hearing that pregnant women tend to have vivid dreams and now that I'm in my 33rd week I have to finally give in and say yes, pregnant women do have vivid dreams. I've been keeping track of them and wanted to share with our readers. Mr. Love Bird has been having weird, vivid dreams as well. Here's a sampling of what we've been experiencing in chronological order:

1) Removing Baby Agbai from the womb for playtime - Uka had the 1st re-memorable dream between the two of us. In it I removed the baby from my womb prematurely to play with it. This was before we knew it was a girl. In the dream Uka was alarmed and asked should we be doing that and I replied that yes, it was necessary to stimulate the baby by taking her out and playing with her from time to time. He nodded and when our playtime was over I simply put the baby back inside of me. 

2) Birthing an Orc - Yes, you read that right. I dreamt I birthed an Orc, a creature from Lord of the Rings. If you don't know what creature it was here's a pic:


Again, I had this dream before we knew what gender the baby was. This dream really terrified me, and I think it was just uncertainty of knowing if it was a boy or girl. 

3) Swimming with whalesIn this dream Uka and I were walking along a stretch of beach and could see whales very close to the shore. I knew whales weren't supposed to be so close to the shore, but I was fascinated and wanted to swim with them. I jumped right in the water and was literally swimming side by side with the whales. I could even look them in the eye. The thought of this while awake and conscious frightens me as I've had always had a fear of whales because of their size and strength, but in my dream I was very much at ease as though I was made to swim with the whales. But that wasn't the end of my dream . . .

I got out the water and met back up with Uka. We continued to watch the whales in the water but then something odd happened: they started fighting each other. The whales bared their teeth and came flying out the water and butted heads like bucks. Uka asked, "Are they supposed to do that?" and I answered, "Oh they're just playing with each other!" But boy was a I wrong. The whales then shed their outer skin and grew legs and approached the shore. This happened about a quarter of a mile away from us and a crowd of about 200-300 people had formed to watch. Well, the whales started coming towards the people, and I realized that they were aliens. The people started screaming and running away from the whales, but I was a safe distance away and didn't feel threatened. The scene reminded me of one from the movie The Host (at about the 1:44 mark):



4) Seeing Baby Agbai's face through my belly - I dreamt that the baby's face came through my skin, almost like stretching a balloon over your face. I could only see the shape of her face, but it was very vivid. Her cheeks were very plump and her head and eyes super round, just like her ultrasound. She was so cute! My family was there and saw this happen and thought it was strange, but I loved it and wanted to share the view with everyone. This marked the first time I remembered dreaming about the baby as a girl.

5) My dream of the actual birth - I won't go into details about what happened in this dream, but it was very disturbing and extremely vivid. The birthing process wasn't that difficult, but it wasn't a conventional birth. It was something from an alien movie. That's all I'll say . . .

6) Mr. Love Bird in the Lucha Libre - This was a very odd dream. In it, we were back in Columbus, Ohio and Uka was hired as the mascot of United Skates of America:


I know I dreamt about USA because of friend of mine had posted recently about it on her Facebook page so it was front of mind. Anyway, I bumped into Uka during a USA meeting in the break room and him and the managers looked at me as though I was interrupting a Presidential Cabinet meeting or something so I apologized and backed out.

Later I was at an intersection with a huge crowd of about 200 people about to cross the street near a strip mall. I looked and saw Uka in a another, smaller crowd in front of the strip mall trying to fit in the shot of a photo that was being taken. The smaller crowd then ran through the strip mall and emerged from the other side (back where the trash is taken out) dressed as Lucha Libre fighters. Uka looked something like this:


I was like, "Uka?!" Everyone who emerged from the opposite was dressed as Lucha Libre fighters and it was an all out battle in the streets. They even had shovels and pitchforks to use as weapons! I was so scared, along with the others in the crowd. I spotted an Old Navy nearby and ran in deciding to shop while the fighters duked it out. While I was in there a women gave birth in the bathroom. In real life, I was woken up when our smoke alarm chirped; I was so disappointed because I wanted to find out the ending.

7) Transfer of pregnancy to Uka - Uka actually had this dream! In it we were at a basketball game and I had transferred my pregnancy to him so I could enjoy the game. I said, "I'm tired of holding her all the time; it's your turn!" Once I transferred the pregnancy I was having a good time, but he was miserable and so uncomfortable. The baby was moving around in his "womb" and was hurting him. He said, "I shouldn't carry this burden! A man's innards weren't made for this!" I found this dream so funny, and it made me laugh! I would love to transfer my pregnancy to him even for just an hour a day. It kinda reminds me of male seahorses!


So why am I having these dreams?

I found this technical explanation at www.babycenter.com:

Dreams are like funhouse mirrors that reflect your emotional state. Since pregnancy can feel like an emotional roller coaster, don't be surprised if your dreams become more vivid and crazy than usual. Dreams also become more vivid during pregnancy because of increased progesterone and increased awakenings from dream-filled REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.

Some experts think pregnancy dreams — which can be about everything from tadpoles and fishes to talking animals and towering skyscrapers — symbolize your excitement, fear, and apprehension about the physical and emotional changes happening to you. They believe that certain themes are common to each stage of pregnancy.

I definitely agree with the highlighted part; I guess subconsciously my dreams are symbolizing my excitement and fear. When I wasn't pregnant I rarely remembered my dreams but when I did they were never as lifelike and vivid as the dreams I'm having while pregnant. I don't know if it's hormonal or what but it's almost as if it's drug-induced or something. Very odd.

I'll keep tracking my dreams for the next 7 weeks and will update if I have anymore. In the meantime, what do you think of these dreams? Have any of you had dreams this strange while pregnant or has your spouse?


5 comments:

  1. Wow..vivid and a little freightening!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Mister always has crazy dreams but I joined him when I was pregnant. I don't think I dream (and I don't dream anymore now) or maybe it is just that I rarely remember my dreams.

    The one pregnancy dream that stuck out the most was the baby had arrived and was crying and crying and I couldn't fix the problem. I took him outside to my husband and he fixed the issue immediately even though he didn't have any supplies (what these supplies were I don't know LOL!). I was so mad.

    I know the dream spoke to my fear of not knowing what to do with a baby and on some level a fear that my husband would be a much better parent than I could ever be.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah, Uka usually has more vivid, memorable dreams than I do. Maybe guys just have crazier imaginations that translate to their dreams!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I thank you so much Dr ogbidi for your herbal product,I bought this herbal supplement after 5 years of trying to conceive surprisingly i got pregnant after using it for just 1 month and 3 weeks.I do believe that your unique Herbal supplement are nothing short of revolutionary as it helped us to have our baby boy, Your herbal product gave me a whole different perspective on infertility even for a bitter skeptic woman who have be trying to conceive for 5 years with your product she still conceive naturally. Thank you, Dr Ogbidi for your help and guide through out the process,for more info or help contact via: via:ogbidihomeofsolution1@gmail.com whatsaap +2348052523829

    ReplyDelete
  5. I thank you so much Dr ogbidi for your herbal product,I bought this herbal supplement after 5 years of trying to conceive surprisingly i got pregnant after using it for just 1 month and 3 weeks.I do believe that your unique Herbal supplement are nothing short of revolutionary as it helped us to have our baby boy, Your herbal product gave me a whole different perspective on infertility even for a bitter skeptic woman who have be trying to conceive for 5 years with your product she still conceive naturally. Thank you, Dr Ogbidi for your help and guide through out the process,for more info or help contact via: via:ogbidihomeofsolution1@gmail.com whatsaap +2348052523829

    ReplyDelete