Pregnancy Dreams

As a tossing/turning, blanket-hogging, snoring sleeper, I often remember my dreams. As a general rule, even though I know who the people are in the dreams, their faces are blurred so I can't really see them. And while I've had some pretty hot ones about my husband, since we've been together, I haven't had any steamy dreams starring anyone else.

Until I got pregnant this time.

It's weird because I remember having vivid dreams when I was expecting before, but not like the ones I've had the last couple of weeks. With my first pregnancy, the dreams were mostly baby-related. And while I did notice they were more detailed, I still didn't see faces. I don't think I've dreamt about the baby directly this time, but I have started seeing faces.

Last night I had a dream about a doctor appointment I had this morning. In the dream, I woke up late and a friend was driving me to the appointment for some reason. We had to stop at another friend's house on the way. When we got there, her kids were wearing boxing gloves and practicing punching through a hole they had cut out in the front door. Odd enough in itself, but the strangest part for me was that their faces were so clear in my mind - I'm talking, crisp, HDTV-quality. Her husband told us his wife had gone to Bed, Bath and Beyond, so we were talking to him about coming back to see her later, when I asked what time it was. It was 10 minutes after my appointment was scheduled. Right then I woke up.

Supposedly we can all decipher our dreams ourselves. I guess I can understand why I had that dream about being late, then. Our toddler had woken up around 6:00 am, so I had gone in to try to get her back to sleep for another hour and ended up falling asleep myself. Subconsciously I knew I couldn't hear my alarm in her room, so I had no idea what time it was. Therefore, the panicked end to my dream.

But the one I had last week, I can honestly say, I have no idea what its origins are. I had my first sex dream about another man since I've been married. I dreamt I was getting in the shower with this incredibly hot Latin guy. He sort of reminded me of Enrique Iglesias, but with less bushy eyebrows and even sexier. He was definitely not someone who exists in real life. And I was just me, 8 months pregnant, but not all that self-conscious about it considering I was naked with some man I don't know. Ironically, our shower is a stall shower that I can barely fit into with my big belly, yet there was enough room for both of us, and the love-making was off the charts. I remember thinking, though, that he was a terrible kisser! And I knew he wasn't my husband, but I didn't think there was anything wrong with us being together. I woke up very freaked out, but also incredibly in the mood and wishing my husband was still home.

Having been pregnant once before, and reading everything in print and on the web I could to prep for that delivery, I knew there are studies showing how dreams are more intense and stranger than usual during pregnancy. Our hormones cause us to dream more often and for those dreams to be more graphic. And waking up even more frequently due to typical discomforts help us remember them better than when we aren't pregnant. But since the first time around my dreams were vivid in a different way, I find myself feeling out of my element again. I don't think I'm alone in my experiences (am I??), but it still takes some getting used to. I still feel a little guilty about my new-found Latin friend, but not so much that I would mind if he showed up again…