Dreams, babies, and stray thoughts on a Sunday
In April of 1971, during the "Boeing Bust," two real estate real-estate agents Bob McDonald and Jim Youngren put up this billboard out by the Seattle Tacoma Airport. Actually the whole aerospace industry was on its lips.
Our first son was born in '71 during the flurry of layoff notices. By the time they stopped trying to lay my husband off in 1974 we were expecting our second son. That was during the big gasoline shortage. My husband still worked 3rd shift and the gas stations were only opened at dark-thirty. I would pack 2-year-old Chris into his car seat in his jammie bag along with cheerios and a banana and squeeze my very pregnant self into whatever car was home and sit in line waiting for gas. The last three months before Dave was born my kidneys started acting up and I ended up in the hospital several times. We were all pooped. If I dreamed I don't remember.
In August when Dave was 3 months old, we bought a bigger house and moved. The housing market in Seattle was still in a serious slump and we couldn't sell the old house so we became landlords. By fall I was so tired I kept falling asleep reading to Chris in the evening before bed, or any other time I sat down. Chris was big on sleeping and napping. David was not. I'd wake up at least twice a night to find myself in the rocker in Dave's room with him asleep on my shoulder and an empty bottle in my hand. I always wondered how moms manage to not drop the baby on the floor but he was fed, blanketed if soggy and sound asleep. I was pooped. Everyone but Dave was pooped. Eventually Dave settled into sleeping from 11pm to 4am sleep pattern with NO naps.
The dreams I had during David's infanthood were a parade of peculiar. I dreamed about my deceased grandparents a lot. Not a surprise in retrospect since I always felt safe and at home with all of them. Once during David's infanthood I woke up from dreaming I was a little girl in my grandmother's house; at first I was sure the little girl me was real life and the crying babies was bad dream. I was so exhausted I had slept through their breakfast and their Dad wasn't home yet from work. The little girl dream was so real. That's when we got a grip and we paid another mother to come with her toddler to play with the kids while I slept midday for a couple of hours three times a week. Not long after that Hubbie left what he referred to as "third shit," and began working days. He'd actually gotten so tired on that shift and studying that he'd come to a dead stop on a street on the way home because he'd hallucinated a train was crossing it. Luckily there was no traffic around. Sometimes he would sit up in bed and talk, sleep talking. He finished his training and left being a night time computer operator and became a programmer in a daytime office instead of working in a chilly machine room all night. Things started getting easier for all of us.
I'm thinking of this because I was very tired last night and went to bed early. I woke up dreaming about myself as a little girl and walking with my grandparents in some leafy woods down to a lake. Sweet and lovely. Then I realized when I was a kid and we had moved yet once more (Dad was a field research biologist then), I would dream about going home to my one of my grandparents' houses. Apparently I still do.
Our first son was born in '71 during the flurry of layoff notices. By the time they stopped trying to lay my husband off in 1974 we were expecting our second son. That was during the big gasoline shortage. My husband still worked 3rd shift and the gas stations were only opened at dark-thirty. I would pack 2-year-old Chris into his car seat in his jammie bag along with cheerios and a banana and squeeze my very pregnant self into whatever car was home and sit in line waiting for gas. The last three months before Dave was born my kidneys started acting up and I ended up in the hospital several times. We were all pooped. If I dreamed I don't remember.
In August when Dave was 3 months old, we bought a bigger house and moved. The housing market in Seattle was still in a serious slump and we couldn't sell the old house so we became landlords. By fall I was so tired I kept falling asleep reading to Chris in the evening before bed, or any other time I sat down. Chris was big on sleeping and napping. David was not. I'd wake up at least twice a night to find myself in the rocker in Dave's room with him asleep on my shoulder and an empty bottle in my hand. I always wondered how moms manage to not drop the baby on the floor but he was fed, blanketed if soggy and sound asleep. I was pooped. Everyone but Dave was pooped. Eventually Dave settled into sleeping from 11pm to 4am sleep pattern with NO naps.
The dreams I had during David's infanthood were a parade of peculiar. I dreamed about my deceased grandparents a lot. Not a surprise in retrospect since I always felt safe and at home with all of them. Once during David's infanthood I woke up from dreaming I was a little girl in my grandmother's house; at first I was sure the little girl me was real life and the crying babies was bad dream. I was so exhausted I had slept through their breakfast and their Dad wasn't home yet from work. The little girl dream was so real. That's when we got a grip and we paid another mother to come with her toddler to play with the kids while I slept midday for a couple of hours three times a week. Not long after that Hubbie left what he referred to as "third shit," and began working days. He'd actually gotten so tired on that shift and studying that he'd come to a dead stop on a street on the way home because he'd hallucinated a train was crossing it. Luckily there was no traffic around. Sometimes he would sit up in bed and talk, sleep talking. He finished his training and left being a night time computer operator and became a programmer in a daytime office instead of working in a chilly machine room all night. Things started getting easier for all of us.
I'm thinking of this because I was very tired last night and went to bed early. I woke up dreaming about myself as a little girl and walking with my grandparents in some leafy woods down to a lake. Sweet and lovely. Then I realized when I was a kid and we had moved yet once more (Dad was a field research biologist then), I would dream about going home to my one of my grandparents' houses. Apparently I still do.
posted by Celia | April 09, 2017
5 Comments:
We all need places we feel at home, yours was obviously your grandparents.
When we are sleep deprived all sorts of strange things happen, if only in our dreams. I trained myself early on, with small children and often awakened late at night to care for the Cowman, that I had to power sleep any time and any where I could.
Young parents work so hard, don't they. It hasn't changed too much either.
Your grandparents must have been wonderful, Celia. What a wonderful refuge you had in them. Even today!
We had a local gas shortage when a alabama pipeline exploded. Knocked out the supply for mosto of the south. Any major gas station was empty for a good day or so and it wouldn't last long once it was back. Funny thing is was the panic. People were sucking the gas dry because we can't go without gas right?
So sorry those early years were so very tiring. Glad you are ok now...and awake.
oh dear ! i thought i will never hear the same story from someone else except me .
i am mother of three boys one is 24 on job now ,second is in 9th grade and youngest is in grade 5.
all of my kids just like you Dave little angle were used to sleep very less during nights but were good sleeper in early mornings and early nights ,my mother tried hard to change their routine by keep them awake on their fav sleep time but nothing worked.
each boy reached to third year and i found nights for sleeping
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