creepy dream about a dead baby

I had a dream that my friend just had a new baby, and she wanted me to take care of it for a day. For some reason the baby was in a shoe box. I had her in my house for a while, then next time I checked up on her she was dead. It's body was cut into pieces, and the head was severed off. I was horrified because I didn't leave it for very long, and couldn't figure out what happened. Some other stuff happened in the dream that I don't remember, then my dad woke me up and it was over.

What in the world does this mean?

One possible thing it could mean:

You yourself do not feel ready yet to take care of a baby. You fear something bad could happen if you tried to take care of a baby. Remember dreams tend to exaggerate.

Another possibility: baby in dream can often represent a new project for example so not actually a baby, so this could be about a new project of yours failing or a hope of yours being cut into pieces before you can even starts new project, or something like that. So it does not actually have to be about a baby at all: baby can just be a metaphor.

I agree with JoannaB, The brain doesn't stop working at night, so we often dream about things that are on our mind. This can be innoccuous things like things that have happened in the day or a tv or film we have watched which get jumbled up with other things, or maybe something in your life is happening that has to do with a baby. If we have concerns or worries on our mind these often manifest in our deams also...Sometimes I have sorted out mixed feelings through my dreams and come to a better understanding of how I feel about certain events or people, other dreams are just meaningless (This could be your dream). If you are ever going to do a speech or play in front of people, it would be a good thing to lucid dream that night so you can literally practice in your head in front of as many people as you want.