Pregnancy brings with it a host of symptoms. "Every woman is different," they say, and not all of us experience the same things. This is very true. What's more, not every pregnancy is the same. My current pregnancy is vastly different from my pregnancy with Henry. Henry's was a breeze in comparison--at least in the beginning. Along with the daily bouts of nausea, I've been experiencing another new symptom this time around--frequent and abnormally vivid dreams. I thought I'd share my most recent...
In this dream, I'm pregnant. I'm at the doctor's for what is supposed to be a routine ultrasound appointment. Except in this nether world, the doctor's office is really a surgery suite in the hospital and the ultrasound involves, what else, surgery!
As the doctor views my baby through the ultrasound screen, she determines that the baby is ready to come out for a sneak peak of planet earth. I'm awake as this is all happening, and luckily, I feel no pain as the doctor slices my stomach open and removes a fully grown baby girl. My baby girl doesn't make a sound, and her eyes are close, yet, she is able to walk around on the surgery room floor for several minutes. As she's walking, the doctor begins clapping and singing, as if my baby girl is putting on some sort of show. Then, the doctor proclaims that it's time for my baby girl to go back inside her home.
This is the strange part. Suddenly, I'm out-of-body, watching a nurse place my baby into my womb and sew me back up. My perspective is as if I'm standing next to myself, lying on the gurney. I'm watching and thinking, "why do you have to put her back?" "She's walking already and looks fully grown!"
I don't question the doctor's decision as I begin to head home, thinking about how I'm going to tell Michael about my incredible doctor's appt. Immediately, I stop in my tracks. It just dawns on me that while I was watching my baby walk along the floor and be placed back into my womb, she is NOT attached to an umbilical cord. My basic learnings from Anatomy 101 come flooding back to me, alerting me that a baby cannot survive in the womb if it is not connected to the placenta--which can only be achieved via an umbilical cord.
Frantic, I rush back to the hospital, track down the nurse who sewed me back up, and question her about my discovery. She calmly reassures me that babies at this particular gestational age are able to sustain themselves sans placenta for about 20 minutes. She continues...the doctor simply detached my baby from the umbilical cord temporarily, and then fastened her back to the cord when she placed her back inside. This wasn't good enough for me.
I couldn't help but think, "how can you safely detach a baby from an umbilical cord and re-attach?" "Wouldn't the connection be much weaker after a procedure like that?" I was terrified that my baby could easily become jarred lose from her cord at anytime. I demanded regular ultrasounds to monitor her. Sure enough, when I next went to the doctor, we found that my girl had become disconnected. Luckily, it was only for a few seconds, so we were able to re-attach her. Granted, this again involved a full-on surgery! From then on, I had to wear a monitor attached to my belly--designed to alert me anytime she became detached again.
That's where this dream ends. No wonder I wake up feeling nauseous every morning. That was a stressful dream. And because it was so vivid, it felt so real.
- Me
We're going to IKEA!!! It's a Swedish dream come true!!! 
