Dream Life...or Which Baby Do I Get?

You may think you know me. But the truth is, you only know the awake, somewhat sane side of me. Eli, bless his heart, gets to be here for the dreaming side of me. After nearly seven years of marriage, I still wake up and say, "I had the strangest dream," as if that doesn't happen all the time. Again, after nearly seven years, Eli looks at me like, "What else is new?" and then patiently lets me tell him about the oddities of the night.

I have weird dreams.

Ever since Elsie has been here, I have weird waking dreams about babies. When I awake from a dead sleep to her crying, I'm terribly confused. How will I know which baby is mine? Which baby do I calm down? Whose baby is crying? Where is my baby?

I get about halfway to the room of crying babies before I remember that there's only one and that she'll be easy to find...you know, since there are not actually any others.

I think that this baby confusion started when Elsie was brand new. I would tell Eli that I felt like I had multiple babies, since they all had very different personalities--sleeping baby, happy baby, hungry baby, crying baby, SCREAMING baby, sleepy baby, content baby. She was the same baby, but she was so many things that were contradictory from moment to moment. It was really an emotional roller coaster.

All this to say that last night I woke up to Elsie crying at around 3 a.m. I was really confused...again...about which baby needed to be calmed or fed. And when I went into Elsie's room, I found that my confusion was not unfounded. When I went into Elsie's room, there were two babies, two pairs of eyes looking at me. One pair of eyes said, "Feed me!" And the other odd pair of eyes said, "I didn't do it."

The big, fat, white furry baby that was in the crib next to her must have crept into the room when I went in around eleven. I usually keep the door open when I go in so that I can help even out the temperature in there--it usually gets colder in there without air circulation, and the cats are usually asleep on the couch when I do this. Last night, they were up and around and I didn't even notice.

The good news is that he kept Elsie warm (or vice versa), and that in her almost nine months on the planet, this is the first time that either of the cats have slept in the crib with her. When she woke up screaming, I don't think Timmy knew what to do. He did eventually jump out of the crib and run away.

I told Eli about the two babies when I came back to bed, and he incorrectly guessed that it was Coco, because cuddling is something we expect from Coco. Haha. Timmy has really turned into a big old tolerant tub of lard. He lets Elsie pull his ears and grab handfuls of his fur, and he doesn't hiss or run away. He puts up with Elsie WAY more than he does Coco. Weirdo.

Anyway, that's the news from my weird waking dreamness. Last night I was NOT losing my mind and I did get the right baby. :)

Cheers.