Experts Explain What Dreams About Babies Actually Mean

Even those of us who don't have kids have the occasional dream about babies — you know, the one where you misplace your baby, or forget that you ever had a baby, or you're nursing your baby and then look down and realize that your baby has transformed into an extra-large cheese pizza? Totally normal dream stuff. But sometimes, the sudden appearance of a baby can make your dreams a little more stressful and high-stakes than usual. How will you take care of this dream baby? How did it even get here? And how do you explain to an infant why this dream also features Dave Franco, covered in oil and wearing a wrestling singlet? Gosh, being a dream-mom is a lot of responsibility!

The baby dream — a counterpart to the ever-popular pregnancy dream — can be unnerving. Especially because a baby who turns up in a dream can mean a whole lot of different things. A baby in our dreams can signal purity and innocence, but it can also signify anxiety, fear, and emotional regression. How are you supposed to tell the difference?

With an assist from the "definitive" dream interpretation site Dream Moods, we'll help you decipher it all, from a baby dream that means you're embracing your own vulnerability to a baby dream that means that you secretly want to pick an old hobby back up.

1. Seeing A Baby

Are you just doing your normal dream things — walking on the moon, showing up to your job naked, arm-wrestling Ryan Gosling — and suddenly, a baby just pops up? Typically, seeing a baby in a dream signifies "innocence, warmth and new beginnings," according to Dream Moods This baby is a reminder of all the good, pure things inside you. This could mean that it's time to get in touch with the part of yourself that prances through meadows and thinks it would be cool if unicorns existed? Only you can decide that (but I vote yes. Who doesn't love a good meadow?).

2. Seeing A Crying Baby

All babies are sometimes crying babies — but if you spot a crying baby in your dream, it may mean that "a part of yourself that is deprived of attention and needs to be nurture." It could also mean that your inner self is crying out about your unfulfilled goals, and trying to get you to pay attention to them.

If the dream baby is crying because it is neglected and no one is paying it any attention, you could be connecting with the part of your psyche that believes you are not tapping into your full potential. And if you're planning on having kids in the future, you could be experiencing fears about your ability to properly love or care for them.

3. Seeing A Dancing Baby

A baby who is busting a move — or even just walking around — means that you're feeling good about your future possibilities. That happy little baby is learning a lot, and has a lot ahead of them — just like you do. And if the groovy baby in question is your actual child, you have high hopes for your kid's future — they're off to a good start, and have a lot of exciting developments ahead of them.

4. Holding A Baby

If you're cradling a little bundle of joy in your dream, you may be harkening back to an earlier period in your life when people depended on you and you felt needed. Search the rest of your dream for clues about what time period you're really thinking about — it could have been a time you were caring for an actual child or family member, or just a time when you had a lot of responsibility at work. What was it about that responsibility that made you feel good, and how can you apply that quality to your life now?

5. Having A Baby

A dream about giving birth is usually a pretty straight-forward metaphor — you're starting a new life phase, or making a fresh start in some capacity (though if you're actually pregnant, it is probably just an anxiety dream about actually giving birth — such dreams are wildly common for moms-to-be). Dreaming that you're in the car on the way to the hospital to give birth may signify "your issues of dependency."

6. Finding A Baby

Hey, what's that over there? A bird? A plane? A $20 bill that someone just dropped on the street? Nope, it's a baby. You found a baby! Which means that you're making peace with the idea of accepting your own hidden potential and talents — things that need to be nursed and cared for, just like this random tiny baby you just found.

7. Forgetting A Baby

Misplacing a baby and forgetting about it in a dream can mean that you are rediscovering an aspect of yourself that you placed aside. Maybe it's time to start playing the flute again, or renew your interest in Russian literature? Alternately, dreaming about forgetting that you actually had a baby means that you're attempting to hide your own weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

8. Encountering An Evil Baby

Evil babies are rare in real life (though in hour six of a long car trip, some of them come pretty close). But evil babies may turn up in your dreams a little more often. Spotting an evil tyke in your dream could mean that you're afraid of a new project that you're beginning — you're nervous that you've bitten off more than you can chew, and might not be able to complete your work properly.

9. Being A Baby

Hey, where's that gurgling noise coming from? Oh no, it's coming from you! Because you're a baby! Dreaming about being a baby may mean that you need to connect to your desire to be nurtured and cared for; or, that you or someone you know is acting immaturely. It could also just signal that you'd really appreciate a nice baba and a nap right about now. Who wouldn't, right?