Baby Dreams

I don't actually dream at night, or, more likely, I don't remember them.  Not right now anyway, I think I'm just to tired.  I sleep the sleep of the dead.  I'm dead to the world, with any and all sensory connection disabled.  That is, with the exception of two sounds, my phone alarm that tells me to get up because I have 15 minutes until the girls will eat, and the girls wailing cries that tell me "daddy I should have eaten 15 minutes ago!"  It's a toss up which I will actually hear in any given night feeding block.

Regardless of why I wake the same process occurs in my brain...I immediately give consideration to the baby I am holding.  We don't actually co-sleep with the twins.  We follow Canada's sleep guide and have our girls in a crib, free of toys, blankets, comforters, etc, right next to our bed where they can wake us whenever they'd like.  But still, for some reason I wake up looking for the little girl I was just snuggling.  It takes a few moments for the fog to clear and to come to the realization that both girls are safe in their crib.  Clear headed, I give my wife a little shake and tell her it's time to feed, to which she slurs "I can't get up until you take the baby from me."  We go back and forth for a bit, until I mime taking a baby out of her arms or she fully wakes and realizes that both girls were and are safe in the crib.

Mommy's Dreams

My wife and I are not alone in our newly acquired dream habits.  In fact, a variation of this type of dream is so common that it has been well researched in sleep labs.  A quick internet search comes up with a long list of moms suffering from our same waking dreams...or similar imaginings at least.  The common thought upon waking is not that one is simply holding a baby, which I think occurs because I have been toting around a child, none stop, for the previous forever, but that one's baby is lost somewhere under the covers of the bed and dying slowly of suffocation.

One such study, completed here in Canada, interviewed 275 women and found that between 88% and 91% of women who were either pregnant, or were new moms, had the "baby in bed" dream in which the baby was lost in the bed.  The result of which is a frantic search through the covers for her missing child.

Baby's  Dreams

It has been observed in studies (where is the research money coming from to study baby dreams?) that babies spend 50% of their sleep time in REM sleep (the state associated with dreaming).  That's 100% more time than adults.  Experts suggest that because infants have no language, their dreams consist solely of imagery, and that because infants are without fear, with the exception of a wariness of strangers, they don't actually have nightmares.  100% more dreams and all of them good?  Sounds nice to me.

How one becomes an expert in baby dreams I have no idea.  I asked both my girls separately about their dreams and all each of them said was "WAAHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA".  If, however, the so called experts are correct then the twins are dreaming about the things within their realm of experience...a big breasted woman at their beck and call.

Daddy's Dreams

Daddy's dreams are simple.  We dream of world in which our children are safe and happy.  A life for our babies filled with joy and excitement...also, like our babies, big breasted women at our beck and call.