The other night I dreamed that I was pregnant.
I am not pregnant.
Likely I will not become pregnant.
I know this for several reasons: my husband and
I said we wanted two kids, we had two kids, and we took measures to ensure that
we would only have two kids.
I have been pregnant exactly two times in my
life, but I dream of being pregnant often.
If I had a real child for each dream pregnancy, I’d need a bus for
transportation and dormitory-style bedrooms.
People nod knowingly – smugly – when a woman
shares about dreaming of pregnancy. Ah,
there’s something unresolved there, they muse.
Does your husband know? You want
more children! You desire babies!
I loved my babies. I enjoy other people’s babies. Babies are part of who I am; I notice babies in
the world because I’m a mother. Each
baby is a joy, his or her perfect little face a shining light. I like babies, but that doesn’t mean I want
another one of my own, despite the dreaming.
Being pregnant in my dreams is both familiar and
new, a strange pairing of feelings that I remember from my own experience years
ago as a mother-to-be. Every feeling is recognizable
yet novel – like I’d done this before, but knowing that everything will be
different at the end. It’s a combination
of wariness and excitement, adventure and fear, power and vulnerability.
But in each pregnancy dream, there’s also an
undercurrent of dread. Dread of toting a
diaper bag. Dread of feeding, and
bathing, and dressing, and immunizations, and little toys everywhere, and
potty-training. Of finding babysitters,
and post-pregnancy body woes, and hormone-swinging, and starting all over. Of living that life again. My dream self may be pregnant, but she isn’t
happy about it.
I don’t usually admit that I disliked being
pregnant.
It’s unpopular to say you have an aversion for something that
brings joy and life. There’s nothing
more natural and extraordinary about growing a human inside your own body. So many people experience hardship related to
pregnancy, whether it’s infertility or baby loss or birth complication or even old
fashioned unplanned and unwanted pregnancy, as well as passing the stage in
life where pregnancy is ideal or even possible, and having no children. It’s downright ungrateful, to appear to disparage
the name, the miracle, the institution
of pregnancy. It’s hard not to feel guilty
when you had an easy time of something that others struggle with. It’s hard not to feel inhuman when you admit
you really didn’t care for it at all.
Pregnancy dreams are just that: just dreams, probably
planted in my subconscious by the babies I see every day, their images prompting
memories of pregnancy to surface later, when my mind is relaxed and unguarded, when
I am asleep in my bed, during this stage of life when pregnancy is unlikely
now. My dreams are not longings for the
future. They’re recollections of the
past.
A past steeped in warm feelings of nostalgia,
but without the desire to relive it.
I was pregnant in my dream the other night.
That’s all.
*******
I can remember having pregnancy dreams and be so excited within the dream that I am pregnant.
ReplyDeleteFor a moment when I wake, I am really excited that I am pregnant.
Then I realize I am not and I am relieved because it is a lot of work.
If we could just have nannies and fitness instructors and housekeepers then all of this would be SO much easier.
WHY WEREN'T WE BORN TO HAVE THE CELEBRITY LIFE???
Exactly. My life was supposed to be more glamorous than this. Something went terribly wrong.
DeleteGuess what? I have never had a dream about being pregnant (that I can recall).
ReplyDeleteWHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT ME?
(apparently, Kari and I are both shouting at you today in all caps)
I have to say, I really enjoy the silent shouting.
DeleteAnd I am floored that you've never had this dream!! I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS
I often have dreams of being pregnant, of others being pregnant... and I have never been pregnant...
ReplyDeleteBut the awesome thing is that for me, whenever I have these dreams, someone else in my life is always pregnant! And I am so not a dream analyzer/obsesser by ANY means! The same thing happens with my mom and my sister. It's weird!
I love babies.
ReplyDeleteI don't love pregnancy.
One doesn't have to exclude the other. Not loving pregnancy doesn't equal not being grateful for what comes out of it (and of me).
I am so grateful for the children I have, and that I NO LONGER WILL BE PREGNANT EVER AGAIN.