During my pregnancy with Liam I didn’t have any notable pregnancy dreams (that I can remember–although clearly I have forgotten more than I thought I had, or I wouldn’t be pregnant again…). While taking Prometrium, I had the vivid dreams that I’ve heard people describe. I’ve been saving them up for posting until after we’d told people about the pregnancy. Here’s a recount of the dreams I remembered to write down while on the Prometrium:
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I was pregnant, or at least I thought I was, but then I was told that I was actually adopting a newborn. We named her Lola (I drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola…Lo, Lo, Lo, Lo, Lola). When they handed her to me, I thought she was rather large and I was surprised that she didn’t look at all like me or Matt. Then they said she was actually about 6 months old. Then all of a sudden she was writing (in what I assume was her native tongue–I couldn’t read it but it was clearly a language and not just randomly placed characters) and when I went to see how tall she was and she was 4 feet tall. We determined that she was actually probably five years old (I have no idea how). Then I wanted to know how I was able to give birth to a five year old and was told that I wasn’t pregnant, just histrionic. Then I woke up.
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I dreamed that my friend Emily was/is pregnant. For some reason this made me cry profusely (although I’m pretty sure I was very happy). Em — do you have something to tell me?
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I dreamed that I was at a potluck supper at my parents’ house. I knew intrinsically that I was pregnant at the gathering but that no one else knew that. I was also nauseous, but apparently still able to crave a balanced meal. I was the last one in line and by the time I got to the serving table there was nothing left but jello salad. I hate jello salad. Then I discovered the second table which had one remaining serving of turkey, green beans, and homemade applesauce. I filled my plate with the remainder of each dish and went to sit down. I put my plate on the table and went to fill my glass with water. When I returned I found Pok scraping what was on my plate into the trash can. I confronted him about it, telling him that I was hungry, and he told me to get over it. He said that everyone had finished eating and I’d missed my chance. I wanted to cry, throw things, and vomit all at once. Then I woke up.
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I was riding (or driving, it was hard to tell) down the highway at high speed when I saw that in front of me there was a van, also driving at high speed, with a teenager holding on to the back of it. At first glance it seemed like he was just running really fast, but it was more of a gliding movement, so maybe he had on skates or something. Anyways, my first impression was that he was somehow keeping the van on course from the back of the vehicle, either pushing or steering. Then he moved and started doing tricks all around the sides (miraculously never leaving his lane). His mother was opening the door to scream something at him at random intervals. While doing so she had her head turned completely around causing her to drive blindly for long stretches of road. This made me nervous (although apparently the gliding/skating teenager on the freeway didn’t). At one point she was turned around for what felt like hours. There was a traffic jam ahead. She turned around in time for her eyes to be as big as saucers and all I saw was a white light as she screamed and slammed on her breaks. Then I woke up.
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I was at the doctor’s office (as I had been the day before) and I had filled out a form (as I did the day before) that was given to me by the receptionist, but that wasn’t particularly applicable to my situation. In the dream I was taken into a room with several other couples, all in different states of having blood pressure taken, blood drawn, etc. The woman who was handling us came over to us with my form and threw it back in my face saying “this is not acceptable, you need to fill this out again.” I was confused, but said “I wondered if it wasn’t applicable to my situation since I’m not here for an annual visit, but a pregnancy confirmation and ultrasound.” She then snatched the paper back out of my hands and the following exchange took place:
Lady in lab coat: Under the ‘how do you feel’ section, you wrote “crappy.” That’s unacceptable.
Shannon:Â I don’t understand, that’s a pretty accurate description of how I feel.
Lady in lab coat: And this question? [points to a question about a theory by some doctor which seemed to me like a question where you were supposed to intuit the answer] Are you trying to tell me you know who Dr. So-and-so is? Just off the top of your head?
Shannon: No. I just figured that since it was implied that I should be able to fill this sheet out in a short period of time, that I wouldn’t need access to reference materials.
Lady in lab coat: Well, you figured wrong and now you’ve earned yourself some homework. [Shakes head and says *ridiculous* in an exasperated tone under her breath.]
Shannon: *That’s* ridiculous. I’m not researching anything for an informational form.
Lady in lab coat:Â Some people are so stupid.
Shannon: Are you calling me stupid? Because that’s a mistake. I am many things, for example: right now I’m furious, but stupid I’m not.
Lady in lab coat:Â Well, I refuse to treat you while you’re being hostile.
Shannon:Â Well, that works out well because I refuse to have you “treat me” in this way and if you touch me there’ll be hell to pay.
Lady in lab coat:Â [Throws form up in the air and stomps out of the room.]
Friend of lady in lab coat:Â [Comes over and mumbles something about taking my pulse and then promptly sticks an acupuncture needle in the back of my hand then tells me to go down the hall to another room.]
Then I walk down the hall to the other room with the needle still sticking out of the back of my hand, fuming the whole way. I turned to Matt and said something about finding a new doctor’s office and then I woke up.
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[I had the following dream after watching entirely too much of the third season of House, which if you’re not familiar involves a drug-seeking doctor and a detective who uses many different tactics to make his point.]
I went to the drug store to refill my progesterone supplement prescription and was told that my DEA number is on hold until further notice and that they can’t help me fill my prescription. The next thing I knew I was sitting in the office of the OB who delivered Liam (and was my doctor for 12 years before I switched things up for this pregnancy). He was sitting at his desk with his cowboy-boot-laden feet crossed and resting on top of his desk, with his hands crossed behind his head. He was smirking at me (which I’ve never seen him do, unless I was saying something funny, and certainly never *at* me). When I asked why I wasn’t allowed to refill my prescription he told me that I “should have thought about that before abusing the system.” When I countered that it wasn’t fair to the child I’m carrying to deny me medication, especially when it’s not a narcotic or anything addictive (or for that matter, when it’s something that I’m convinced makes me more nauseous and which I cannot wait to stop taking as soon as possible). I said “how could you do this to my child? You’ll kill her (apparently in this dream I’m having a daughter)! How could you stand to have that on your conscience?” He responded that the refusal to fill my prescription was the result of my actions and I had no one to blame but myself. Then I woke up.
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I was in New York City with some people from high school (in the dream they were definitely friends, but the faceless familiar kind of friend). We found our way to a farmer’s market. The first thing I picked out was an apple the size of a large pumpkin. The guy who was helping me cut it in half (with a pocket knife, somehow) because I clearly couldn’t eat the whole thing by myself (apparently 5 pounds of apple was doable while 10 pounds of apple was out of even my reach). I then wandered around looking for pastries (and unable to find a plain cheese danish) getting more and more frustrated when I realized that the people I came with were gone and I was by myself in the middle of a farmer’s market in NYC. I didn’t really feel panicked in my dream, but in my head I knew that I had to be panicked. Then I woke up.
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The dreams (at least super-vivid ones like these) seem to have subsided as soon as I finished taking the Prometrium. Hopefully they’ll stay away, they certainly feel much more real than my dreams sans Prometrium and while interesting, being awakened with a jolt isn’t much fun.