dreams

I love what I learn about pregnancy by living with Koreans and Japanese. Last night at dinner MY asked me if Americans believe that the mother can learn the baby’s sex by paying attention to their dreams. She said that in Korea, most women have a dream, near their due date, which reveals the baby’s sex (this may be more about her parents’ generation than the current generation). Before she was born, her mom dreamed that she picked a large fish out of the ocean. Her mom told her grandmother about the dream, and her grandmother said, “That means you will have a girl!.” Before MY’s sister was born, her mom dreamed that she picked a strawberry. That, apparently, needed no interpretation: a strawberry is always a girl. Sean, another Korean friend, was eating dinner with us last night too. His mother dreamed of picking nuts, and that’s how she knew he would be a boy.

Gotta start paying more attention to those dreams! MY said sometimes it’s not the mother, but the grandmother or great-grandmother who has the dream or interprets the dream. I told her that my grandmother was pretty sure this one’s a girl. She said she thinks that it’s a girl, too.

I thought it was girl, until last last Sunday when I worked in the church nursery and we had a new baby visiting, the cutest six-month old boy. After meeting him, I suddenly thought maybe mine will be a boy after all.

fetal education

Yesterday, in the car on the way home, and after being in the car for an hour, I got angry at a stupid driver who cut me off. MY, my Korean housemate, sweetly asked if I had ever heard of “fetal education”.

I thought maybe she meant Lamaze. Nope.

“In Korea, many women believe that you should spend a lot of time in your pregnancy to read books and educate yourself, so that the baby will be educated. But also, you should try to avoid some negative things like getting angry, impatient, so that your baby will not learn to be angry or impatient.”

Whoops.

6.5 and Koreans

To be honest, being pregnant gives me gas. It makes my skin break out. It keeps me from being able to stay awake in movies, and it leaves me feeling nauseated. Yesterday at church I watched a very pregnant girl who is about my age waddle out of church towards the bathroom, and I thought, “What have I gotten myself into?” Later, talking with the DH about what it means to have a kid, we asked ourselves, “What have we gotten ourselves into?”

One of my Korean friends, MY, asked me last week if I am planning to look at a picture of a beautiful baby everyday. Noooo, I said. Why? Apparently, if a Korean mother looks at a baby picture everyday, her baby will look like that picture! Also, if she drinks milk, her baby will have whiter skin, but if she drinks sodas, her baby will have darker skin. I asked MY: “If I look at a picture of a Korean baby everyday, do you think my baby will look Korean when she’s born?”

She didn’t think so.

Korean mothers spend 2-4 weeks in a special care unit after giving birth. They only see their babies for feedings, and they eat seaweed soup, and they aren’t allowed to touch cold water at all. MY says that Korean women are weaker than American women, but I don’t think that’s possible. I’m curious, though. I want some researcher to study this and find out if the Korean way lessens post-partum depression.