Dream Check-In

I couldn't make this up. Last night I had the MOST vivid dream that I was in labor. As in childbirth labor. In the dream, I was 9.5 months pregnant and standing in line at Northwestern Memorial hospital waiting to be admitted. My sister was with me and I was very confused in my dream because I had never felt the baby kick in all those 9 plus months, and I had not experienced any of the symptoms of pregnancy. My sister kept saying something soothing about loving my baby, but I was convinced that something might be wrong since I didn't realize I was pregnant until my water broke. In my dream I kept thinking of all the taboo foods I ate while I was allegedly pregnant: brie cheese and lunch meat, which I am told you can't eat because of some bacteria issue. At one point I was laying on the ground writhing in pain and calling Jeff on the phone. I was saying to him, "It's April 29th, and it's the due date of the baby. Can you believe our baby is coming right on time?" Then, I got mad at him for talking to me on speaker phone-- sometimes dreams are so realistic.

It's also strange how specific it was. Our wedding day is November 29th, and in the dream I was doing some rather high level math to figure out when I got pregnant. It's not easy to count backwards 9 months from April during deep slumber.

I think I probably just had to pee in the middle of the night and wasn't getting up, which in turn was causing labor-like pains in my abdomen. But, ever in search of symbols, I decided to do a little research on April 29th. Here's what I learned about that auspicious date in history:

1945: American soldiers liberated Dachau concentration camp. This is obviously a very good event, though the fact that the concentration camps existed at all dampens my enthusiasm for this memory.

1992: Los Angeles jury acquitted police officers of beating Rodney King and massive rioting ensued. I am ambivalent about sharing the birth of a child with a date that sparked a huge race riot, causing deep divides and searing scars in American race relations-- a date that also exposed some of "justice" system's flaws.

1997: First joint US-Russian space walk-- Jerry Linenger and Vasily Tsibliyev do the moon walk. Now this I like! Jeff is Russian (100% actually) and I am Texan, which is close to being full-blooded American. I like space (ha, ha), I like walking and I love Michael Jackson's music (pre-pedophile days), so moonwalking Russians and Americans I am on board for.