I had an amazing dream Saturday night. I’m writing about it in conjunction with the daily word prompt because I want to remember this, I want to record it, so I’ll have it always.
I normally remember my dreams and they are always vivid and detailed… they were nothing compared to what I experienced Saturday night.
It started with me waking up (in the dream) in my bed at my parents’ house because I was going into labor.
I ran up the stairs to Natalie’s room because she’s the loudest. I whispered her name as I shook her shoulders.
“Nat… Nat… Hey, wake up. I think I just went into labor…”
She layed there, unaffected.
Then her eyes opened wide and she flew out of bed.
“Ok, ok, don’t panic. I’ll tell mom and dad, you get to the hospital.”
Next thing I knew, I was in a bed in the hospital with a doctor who bore a striking resemblance to George Gaynes (the dad from Punky Brewster and Cmdt. Eric Lassard in the Police Academy movies).
Everything I did was wrong. I showed up to early, then I was too late. He wanted to do surgery, he wanted to send me home… I was so stressed out and overwhelmed. Luckily, Shar was there and she took me and my bed for a stroll around the hospital. I called my therapist and weighed the pros and cons of each possibility and by the time we hung up, I felt much better.
Then it was time to go back into the room. I felt sick.
By the time we got there, though, it was time for shift change! I didn’t see the same doctor. This one was much younger and looked a little like David Caruso, from CSI Miami. I don’t even watch that show so I don’t know why he’s making a cameo…
Anyway. Doctor David did an ultrasound. Because the previous doctor did not but knew enough that my baby had no heartbeat.
“Here it is, see? That pulsating color around his body, that’s his heart beating.”
I started to cry.
“Would you like a picture?” He asked
“You can do that?”
“Sure, let me show you.”
He connected a small camera wire to one of my IV’s (?) and feed it down through to my stomach.
“There he is, see?”
And I saw him. Tiny, pink and perfect.
“He just waved at you” the doctor said.
“Now, for a more serious subject. Do you want to have another C-Section or do you want to try to give birth to him naturally?”
I’m sure there are not a lot of people who sign up for going through childbirth when given the choice but I’ve always felt cheated, I guess by Tayla’s birth being an emergency C-section.
“If I can, I’d like to try to do it naturally” I said
He smiled and said he’d get a couple of nurses to help. As he turned to leave, I grabbed the sleeve of his coat. He turned around and sat down next to me.
“I just wanted to say thank you. You are the complete opposite of my previous doctor and exactly what I need right now.”
He patted my hand.
Then, I had to pee.
I hopped down and waddled off toward the bathroom. I don’t know how long I was gone but when I came back, he’d been born! Sort of.
I hopped back up onto the bed and the doctor asked if I wanted to see him.
“Yes!”
Shar gently picked him up, he was still in the amniotic fluid, the sac was still sealed and she placed him on my chest.
I could make out facial feature and then I felt something wet. The water had started to leak. It was draining so fast… I screamed for the doctor who reassured me it was ok.
“It will only break when he’s ready”
I tried to slow down my breathing and within a few moments, there he was. We were touching skin to skin. He started to wiggle and without using his arms, just arching his back, he looked up at me and smiled.
I lingered in that moment for a long time. Everyone just faded into the background until it was just the two of us. I remember thinking (in the dream) “is this Noah? If it’s not, can I still use the name Noah? Has he been reincarnated? Come back to me?”
I was pulled out of this dream state fogginess by Don asking me where the car seat was. People were coming and going and at one point I looked down into his blanket and he was gone.
I was hysterical. I looked all over for him and when I finally found him, he was in a hospital crib, where he was supposed to be.
At this point, I think I was starting to wake up because I had the thought that he was safe and where he was supposed to me and would be waiting for me.
In DBT therapy we talk about “what was the missing experience”? While my doctors weren’t quite as bad as they had been in the dream, it was so nice to get to “experience” a doctor who really cared, deeply. It was nice to have the option of delivery vs c section. It was amazing to see and feel this little baby on me, not having been taken away before I got a chance to see her. This baby was healthy. This baby was safe. This baby was… is waiting for me.
Striving For Sanity 