Background information: I am recently separated from a bad marriage, and am dating someone new.

In my dream, I am in a store, buying things for a baby -- I’m thinking my baby. I am loaded to the ears with diapers, lotions, and clothes. The salesperson asks if I am having a baby. I tell her yes, that my new girlfriend (wife, in the dream) and I are expecting. When I tell her my wife’s name, she surprisingly says, “Come this way, I have something to show you.”

She leads me to a door and opens it. There I see my wife, with two other men who are having their way with her. I drop all the things I was carrying and run from the store. It was then that I woke up.

—Juan, age 27, separated, male, Lilburn, GA

Hi Juan—

That was some store you went to! They had everything you needed: diapers, lotions, clothes and a magic doorway through which you could eavesdrop on your fears!

Pregnancy can have literal and symbolic meanings in dreams. Accordingly, your dream that your girlfriend “is expecting” may reflect literal thoughts you’ve been having, as you look forward possibly to marrying her, and to starting a family. In a symbolic sense, her pregnancy also may represent “new beginnings.” In this light, your trip to the store, to purchase goods for the “new baby,” may symbolize your desire to nurture and provide for the growing relationship between you and your new lover.

Dreams of a partner’s infidelity always are disturbing, but the dreams do not always reflect doubts about our partner’s faithfulness. For example, if your last relationship left you wondering about your desirability as a partner (a natural feeling in the wake of a separation), it is possible your dream reflects these doubts -- by showing your girlfriend attracted to other people. Do you worry that your partner would find “someone else” more attractive?

If you experienced infidelity or a betrayal of trust in your last relationship, it would also be natural -- as your commitment level escalates with your new partner -- to fear betrayal again. Because your relationship is new, you also may be adjusting to what you know, or don’t know, about your girlfriend’s sexual history. Have stories of past lovers struck an uncomfortable chord in your heart?

If you have no reason in your waking life to suspect your girlfriend of wrong-doing, you need to give her the benefit of the doubt -- until you are proven otherwise. Your dreams may be signs that you still are wrestling with demons “borne” in your last relationship. If this is the case, then you don’t want to let your fears, as you prepare for an increasing level of commitment, spook you out of a good relationship. If you want love to blossom in your life, you eventually must extend your heart, and take the risk of trust again.