Leslie – As you say – a lovely dream.
Opening scenes are important. So the mixture of apartment and office suggests you are easy with what you work at. Your responsibility seems to be about a new part of you. The baby can be a new phase of life; a new idea; new activity - as when we say someone has a new baby, meaning a new project or business. This ‘baby’ might be part of you that did not have a chance to be ‘born’ or express before. Or it may be things learned in a rich life that you could not put into practice because of circumstances. The baby in this aspect is the ‘you’ that could have been if you had been free from problems and past hurts.
I suggest the above because it doesn’t have any signs of being about babyhood trauma or difficult feelings. That you feel she is not yours simply mean you cannot yet identify with her as part of you. A dream trick we play on ourselves.
And the baby elephant is a special gift, one you identify with more fully. It is a baby, but as you know, it can grow into enormous strength. And that these two are your responsibility seems to say that the new baby, as she grows, will use the enormous strength of the elephant.
I do not know what the stripes mean, except they are unusual, and so may be saying the ability to reach out for your needs is an important feature of this dream.
Tony
