The Gold Standard

Yesterday my family and I went to The Old Spaghetti Factory (the new one at Southcenter) to celebrate my birthday. As you might recall, we already had celebrated my birthday with Jamaal's in February. But, I ended up in tears and my brother, who says he "felt bad for me" was eager to go out to dinner again.

At dinner, my dad tells me "I had an 'Aubri dream' the other night" and then proceeds to tell me about a dream he had. It wasn't too crazy, so I asked why it was an "Aubri dream," and I guess the answer is that it was vivid like mine are nearly every night. My dreams have become the gold standard, and not only in my family, but also at work. They are pretty crazy...

The other night I had a particularly vivid dream.

I was going into labor, so my mom and left for the hospital. We were unable to take a vehicle for some reason, and so we had to walk about a mile. Fire engines passed us a couple times, and we waved at them to have them stopped but they waved right back at us and kept on going.

It was the middle of the night, and so it was very dark out, but we just kept walking. Finally, we arrived at the hospital, and there was an issue with the elevators. This hospital required a hospital staff escort in order for people to use the elevator, and there was only one escort at work, so there was a huge pack of people trying to use the elevator, and only one elevator in service. We didn't have time for this nonsense, so we took the stairs. We had to get from the 1st floor to the 6th. By the end I was crawling up the stairs in tears. I don't remember pain, but I know from the tears I was in pain. During this part of the dream, I was watching myself climb the stairs.

We finally arrived at the 6th floor, the labor and delivery unit, and they cannot accept walk ins. Plus, the did not believe that I was in labor. I was furious. I told them I had to pee really bad, and asked for a basin. (We have these at work, they are a circular basin about a foot and a half in diameter and about 4-5 inches deep.) They provided a basin, and I squatted down in front of the nurses station, and out popped my baby. I was scared to look, but when I did I found it was a boy. I told my mom, in a sad voice, that it was a boy. She kind of slumped a little. My mom, was like 8-10 feet away from me, and remained that far away. I had no help whatsoever. I said to my mom "I guess we should call Jamaal." But this was the first time I had even thought of notifying him. I picked up my baby, and proceeded to ask for suction, and someone handed me a suction bulb, and I had a hard time getting the babies mouth to open so I could suction everything out of his mouth. I never did hear him cry.

I woke up. Then I proceeded to lay in bed thinking how I should have clamped the umbilical cord. Never mind the fact that I had my baby in a basin, because no one would help me. ;)

I had another intense dream last night, but I really cannot describe it in a way that would make sense. So just take my word on it. ;)