I had one of those dreams last night, the one where you are a terrible mother for neglecting your child. I had my first taste of these back in Junior High when my baby brother was born - I lost him in the supermarket. As an adult, I've had them from time to time about my pets - they usually revolve around suddenly remembering that I've forgotten about the pet for weeks at a time, and it's been locked in a drawer somewhere without food. I'm always relieved at how not-dead my pet is from starvation, and how happy it is to see me instead of angry about the whole neglect issue.
Last night I dreamed I set my baby down on the couch, walked away to do something and was distracted for a time, and when I came back she had slipped off the couch to go hide amongst a floor littered with toys that were bigger than she was. She was quite possibly the smallest newborn to ever crawl and play hide-and-seek, as she was (suspiciously?) the size of a kitten. I found her where she had camouflaged herself in a pile of Legos. She had slipped her head inside this monstrously-sized plastic yellow head of a generic Legoman, making odd noises so I thought she couldn't breathe. I whisked it off of her face and she was just giggling and cooing at me. I picked her up, cupping her in my palms carefully, quietly scolding her and myself for being so silly. Then I started bathing her with a wet washcloth in the fashion displayed in the Newborn Care class we took a few weeks ago. All was forgiven, as she was happy, unharmed, and unstarved.
I am dreading the dream where I discover I left her sleeping in a dresser drawer 10 days ago. I wonder if she will purr and meow in greeting, giggle at how silly I am, or cry because she is so starved.
Note to self: wait to get Legos or Duplos for Kailea until she is too big to slip her head inside of them. Although... that sounds much safer than giving a newborn regular-sized Legos to choke on. Hmm. Maybe the moral of this story is I need to invent giant Legos that babies can safely play hide-and-seek with. Much, much bigger than Duplos even.
My dream of this sort was always that i left her at home while I went out shopping all day< or worse yet, left her on top of the car in the infant seat and she tumbled off as I drove away. Nothing like that ever happened, of course. But expect to be startled every time you DON'T see her on the back seat (because you actually got to go somewhere by yourself) for the first few years! It always made me a moment of panic.... <3 carmen
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever had those kinds of dreams, but I do know the panic moment when you can't find your child and it takes a few minutes to realize you didn't have him with you in the first place.
ReplyDeleteOne night when Travis was about a year-and-a-half old I went to check on him sleeping and he wasn't in his bed. I looked around the house quickly and didn't see him anywhere. I woke Jeff, panicking, and we started a more thorough search of the house. All the doors and windows were closed and locked, but Travis was no where to be found. I was about to call 911 when we finally discovered him sleeping against the arm of the couch, curled up under one of the throw pillows.
I love the idea of giant legos. Maybe you could get rich there.