Birth or chocolate?

It seems that even my subconscious can't yet process the idea of labour without cloaking it in metaphor: I'm sure that my dream last night was to do with my anxiety about the birth, but if it were a film I don't think many audiences would appreciate the symbolism.

In the dream I found myself in front of a vending machine, faced with the decision of what snack to purchase. I stood there for what felt like hours, unable to choose, mainly because everything on offer was in some way verboten to pregnanters because it contained peanuts or whatever. Finally I selected a bag of M&Ms which were really a mixture of acid drops and chocolate raisins. Then I found that I couldn't read the price properly, and when I deciphered it had to scrabble around for enough change as it was much more expensive than I'd thought; next I couldn't see the code I had to enter because it was hidden at the bottom of the cabinet, and each time I bent down to memorise it I'd forgotten it again by the time I straightened up to the keypad. (By this time an angry queue was forming behind me.) When the packet finally emerged it was disappointingly small and unappetising, and I was mortified by the whole experience.

OK, so maybe the symbolism isn't that opaque after all...

Weeks: 20+1