Psychologically Encouraging Dream; Inadvertent Theme; Some Links

I dreamed awhile back that I went to the doctor because I was feeling so tired, and she discovered I was pregnant. She did an ultrasound since I had no idea when I could have conceived (and was, in the dream, counting backwards to Paul’s snip) (fun fact: at the time of the dream, it had been fourteen weeks), and she said I was fourteen weeks along (which means conception would have been two weeks AFTER the snip, but my dream brain is apparently oblivious to such obstetrical details) and she also told me that the baby was a girl (she added “Every so often I can tell this early!”—my brain’s solution to the problem of how she could possibly know). I wonder if you were able to follow that in spite of all the parenthetical remarks.

In the dream I first got a rush of happy excitement, then a rush of anxiety about telling Paul. Then I thought I’d like to get a paternity test done when the baby was born—not because Paul would kick up any fuss, but because if _I_ were Paul and _I’D_ had a snip and MY wife were pregnant, I would…well, I imagine I’d get a certain peace of mind from having the test done, but I sure as no longer shootin’ wouldn’t want to ask for it or imply there was any need for it.

And then in the dream I thought, “Oh. But I LIKED Henry being the baby of the family. And I LIKED Elizabeth being the only/special girl.”

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If you’re trying to severely reduce sugar in your diet, and you do really well for awhile but then one day a doughnut and a candy bar go RIGHT DOWN, seemingly before you’ve even had a chance to evaluate the wisdom of such a move—are there any disaster-moderating things to do next? I’m thinking along the lines of “Quick, eat some protein to moderate the insulin impact!”—smart sciencey stuff like that.

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Elizabeth wanted cupcakes as her birthday dessert. I’d seen other people bringing in cupcakes to school with the child’s age piped onto the cupcakes, so I did that for Elizabeth’s. It turns out that “six-year-old party” = “inadvertent Mark of the Beast theme”.

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From Miz S, a post I think she should send to a teacher magazine for publication, it’s so perfect. If there are teacher magazines. I’m kind of assuming there are teacher magazines. There SHOULD BE teacher magazines. Anyway, I read it twice through, riveted and emotional. It wasn’t even the POINT of the post that got to me, it was more the way it gave me one of those neat brief glimpses into what it’s like to be someone else.

From Jive Turkey, a post about whether we can avoid doing unto our children what our parents do unto us. She hits that perfect mark of thought-provoking and introspective, mixed with little shots of comic relief.

A longer essay from Shit My Dad Says—special for Father’s Day. That guy makes me laugh until I cry.

Lakeline linked to a post from PajamasMedia, a kind and compassionate set of tips for how to avoid appearing crazy on the internet (when you really ARE crazy).

16 thoughts on “Psychologically Encouraging Dream; Inadvertent Theme; Some Links

  1. Anonymous

    One year my mom decorated my birthday cupcakes with age-appropriate math problems for the age, like 4+2, 7-1, 3+3, etc.

    Reply
  2. Leah

    Haha, I was all “Oh Swistle found that crazy people thing too, I wonder where she came across it,” and sat here thinking about it for a while before I realized it was me. Heh.

    I have had nightmares about the snip failing and me ending up pregnant and getting accused of cheating. Totally terrifing.

    Reply
  3. Nik-Nak

    I have nightmares where I end up pregnant only to realize I ve not had sex with my husband in years. Yeah, what does THAT (I’m crazy, so what) shit mean?
    Niiiiice cupcakes. I’m really hoping the children that age nowadays aren’t old enough to get the mark of the beast thing though, right?

    Reply
  4. Mrs. Irritation

    A woman in our neighborhood, her husband had the snip more than 5 years ago. Imagine their surprise when last fall she turned up pregnant. Apparently he failed to go to all 4 (or 6??) follow up snip appointments and his stuff grew back together and it isn’t uncommon. I still imagine the look of disbelief on his face when she told him and the defensiveness she must have felt, even KNOWING she had done nothing wrong.

    Reply
  5. Caitlin

    I have been having some whackass dreams lately, including pregnancy dreams. In the PAST when I have had pregnancy dreams they have been TERRIFYING. I do not WANT to have children and therefore I do not WANT to be pregnant and not long ago I had a very disturbing dream where I found out I was pregnant and I was ANGRY because I JUST got the guest room decorated the way I want and now I am going to have to undo all that and make it a nursery!

    But two nights ago I had a dream that I was pregnant and I was SO! HAPPY! to be pregnant! This after several days of unexplained nausea. Um…

    The pregnancy test says NO and I say LET’S NOT THINK TOO HARD ON THIS, shall we?

    Reply
  6. ssm

    My fallible logic is that if you’re ALREADY eating the sugar, you should just go ahead and eat MORE. But you probably already guessed that was my answer. (I have found no good solution to what to do when this happens, and it happens often, except suffer the consequences.)

    Reply
  7. Your Favorite Troll

    You’re obviously not a teacher – there are teacher magazines, and that post is not appropriate for anything except a “day in the life of” article – it’s an opinion piece, not a valid pedagogical argument.

    The protein thing is good – if you can have the willpower to eat a specialK protein bar (they taste like candy bars, promise), you’ll be out of the woods for 4 hours or so.

    Reply
  8. Swistle

    Troll- Don’t teacher magazines have “day in the life of” articles or opinion pieces? Perhaps it would be better for some other publication, then—something obviously-not-teachers would read.

    Reply
  9. L

    Teacher link was lovely. Anyone who attended a school, regardless of pecking order might get something out of it I’d think.

    And the how not to be crazy on the internet one was great too.

    Reply
  10. L

    Forgot to say what I wanted to say – what a great dream as far as the bit about how you like that Henry is your baby, and that Elizabeth is your only girl.

    Reply
  11. Jess

    I dreamed last night that I was pregnant, even though I have an IUD, and they were doing an ultrasound because I had no idea when I could have conceived, but it was definitely AFTER the IUD because I had the IUD inserted at my six-week postpartum appointment, and I was SO UPSET and doing the math about how my kids would be less than a year apart and also trying to convince my midwife that we had to worry that it might be an ectopic pregnancy because of the IUD.

    It was so vivid and so realistic with the IUD details that I woke up wondering if I should really take a pregnancy test in case my subconscious was trying to tell me something. Glad to know I’m not the only one who has weird obstetrical dreams!

    Reply
  12. Elsha

    My daughter actually has two little girl friends who are both “after snip” babies. In one case the couple knew the snip didn’t take. In the other case, baby number 4 was quite the surprise!

    Reply
  13. Buttercup

    So, I’m not really a teacher–I play one on the weekends in Sunday School classes–and that vignette spoke to me. We have a lot of trouble in what should be a fairly light, Jesus-loves-you, let’s all read the story and do the craft-type classes with the kids bringing up negative and hurtful topics with each other. My teammates and I aren’t teachers and don’t know the right way to deal with these things, except not making a huge deal out of it and thus encouraging additional discussion of who’s stupid or whether D’s cousin is a criminal, and just gently changing the subject back to age- and setting-appropriate conversation. I am maybe a little relieved that real live teachers have these same problems and also maybe don’t like their kids just a tiny bit sometimes.

    Reply
  14. d e v a n

    Um, not to scare you or anything, but you actually COULD get pregnant 2 weeks after a snip. We didn’t get the all clear for 3 months.
    I had a “I’m pregnant” dream recently and woke up demanding my husband get checked again. LOL
    He hasn’t.

    Reply

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