The Story of Jack Part Two-"Fake Labor"

So before I tell you the actual labor story, I have to tell you the fake one first. Because it's great.

Jack was due to be born on April 9th, but since technically a baby is "full term" at 37 weeks, Rob and I were anxiously awaiting the pop of water or sudden intense cramping that meant he was a'comin. And that's when I decided to pull the ultimate April Fool's prank. Oh yes, I started the planning a few weeks prior to the actual day of fools. Every so often, I would wake up in the middle of the night and walk around for a bit, get some water or whatnot, and when my husband would ask me what was the matter, I would reply, "Oh nothing, just some small little contractions. Just Braxton Hicks. Nothing to worry about. Go back to sleep." (I actually had no false labor whatsoever. Seriously, did my body even know I was pregnant?) 

Finally, the fateful day came. It was a Sunday, and it was right before the third session of General Conference. (Mormon reference. I was going to do it earlier so we wouldn't miss any of the conference, buuuut I overslept. Oops.) I was actually pretty nervous! I didn't know if I could even pull it off or if he would fall for it. I'd never gone into labor before, I didn't really know how it was supposed to look, but then again, neither did Rob. I almost backed out, but how could I resist!? I might never be that pregnant close to April 1st again! So of course I had to seize this exceptional opportunity. While Rob was in the living room waiting for conference to start, I was in the bathroom, minding my own business, when *Splash!* my water broke! Orrr I just poured water down my pants! (Worth it.) I thought he might've heard the splash, but when he didn't come running, I called for him to come. He took a look at me, pants wet, standing over a puddle, and I told him, "Honey, my water just broke!" Here it was, the moment of truth. Would he take the bait?...

"Oh wow, really??" YES. 

"Yeah, I think we need to go to the hospital!" 

"Oh ok, I'll get changed, and you probably should too!" 

So, we proceeded to change clothes and gather my hospital bag that I had cleverly gotten all ready to go, all the while I am making playful (and totally believable) banter about timing and how funny it felt to have one's water break, and how cool it was to be part of the 15% whose water breaks on it's own. I even made a fake call to our parents telling them to start heading up here, cuz the baby's coming! (It's all in the details folks.) We packed up all our stuff in the car, and I'm just about to tell him it was all a hoax, when my darling husband exclaims, "The video camera! You should record our trip to the hospital!" To which I replied, "What a GREAT idea sweetheart!" I would love to get your reaction on camera for our posterity to enjoy!

And this is what happened from there:

I know guys, I know I am so awesome mean! But it had to be done, and I knew he'd forgive me. I actually felt pretty bad after, because he was so genuinely excited! Like a kid on Christmas. No, like being woken up by their dad saying, "Get dressed, we're going to Disneyland!" only to be told 10 minutes later, "APRIL FOOL'S!" Heart. crushed.

But hey, at least we didn't miss Conference! And funny thing, karma has a way of biting you in the butt later on, which is what happened to me, 12 days later...

The Story of Jack Part One-Pregnancy

So, once upon a time, (I should really come up with a more original intro; oh well) Victoria and Robert got married. And when two people do such a thing, the question comes up: when are we gonna start poppin' out kiddos? For me, it was a quote from Spencer W. Kimball I think about not waiting until you finished school or were in a better financial situation before you started having children, that made it pretty clear to me what we should do. Of course, to each his own, and each couple should definitely pray about the decision for sure. So, we weren't actively "trying", but we weren't actively "not trying" either. That might be t.m.i., but again, oh well.
So for the next 8-9 months or so, I rode the emotionally fickle roller coaster of desperately wanting a baby, to thinking maybe it would be better to hold off for while. At the end of those 8-9 months, my poor husband started to notice that I was being unusually crabby. I noticed too, and it would make me even more angry because I didn't know why I was so angry! Robert at this point, probably second guessing his decision of an eternal companion, tentatively suggests that I take a pregnancy test. I probably snapped back that there was no way I was pregnant I just took one last week and it was negative plus I don't even feel pregnant you stupid man. Robert then leaves for work, somewhat abashed. I feel bad again, and so I go to the store, buy a test, come home, take it, hardly even looking at it because I know I'm not ... whoa, are those 2 pink lines?? I snatch the test up and can't even begin to fathom what that one little extra line meant. At that point I think I might have started hyperventilating a bit. Ok, calm down, you're pregnant, not cancerous, this is a happy thing! And so then, on the floor of my bathroom I knelt down and thanked God for such a wonderful blessing. 
So, with my heart now practically gushing with joy, I thought of how to tell Rob. I thought back to how my mom told my dad she was pregnant with me. She got him a father's day card, and when he, really confused asked, "Why? I'm not even a father." She replied, "Well, you will be." Or something to that effect. I always liked that story, and so I went to the store yet again, this time for a card. Unfortunately this was mid August (12th I think), and father's day cards were no where to be found, so I settled for a cute baby related card instead. I wrote something along the lines of "Surprise! I'm pregnant!" in the card and set it on the table for my hubby to find when he came home. When he did, I watched a few steps away as the words sunk in. He looked up at me with a huge smile on his face and said, "RrreeeeaaalllY??" I nodded. "That's exciting!!" Haha yes it is dear, yes it is.
The next nine months were pretty, well, uneventful. Seriously, I had the most boring pregnancy of all pregnancies. Except for the fact that my stomach blew up like a balloon, I really didn't have a lot of symptoms. No morning sickness. No weird cravings. There was maybe like a week where I wanted a tuna sandwich every day, but that was it, if that counts. No sensitivity to smell. In fact my nose actually plugged for about 2 months (month 5-7 I believe). Don't know if that was pregnancy or winter? No real intense back pain. I'm really pretty lucky, and I know a lot of people hate me for having it so easy. Believe me people, I'm grateful! I really am. All I could think about was I hope it's this easy when he actually comes out. *Wishful thinking*
That reminds me, I have to tell about the day we found out we were having a bouncing baby boy. So, we were the pretty typical couple when it came to what we wanted; we said of course we would be happy with whatever the gender was, but reeealllyy Rob wanted a boy, and I wanted a girl. I tried to be neutral about the whole thing, but it didn't help that pretty much EVERYONE thought we were going to have a girl. I had dreams about both, so I had no idea. Mother's intuition is a myth when it comes to gender, or maybe I just don't have it.
Anyway, as soon as the picture came up on the screen, it was obvious. No mistake, we were having a boy. Rob was ecstatic, and I was smiling, but on the inside, I was just a little teensy bit disappointed. I am the oldest girl, and I guess I liked the idea of having a little mini me. Plus, I have 3 sisters, and I just felt more comfortable with little girls. As it started to sink in, I thought to myself, I don't know anything about how to raise a little boy! I have a brother, but I can't really say that I understand him all too well. I'm a girl, I get girls, but boys?? It seemed like so much more pressure; I'm going to have to make sure he goes on a mission, and can support a family, and can hold the preisthood, etc... What if he doesn't even like me?? What if I'm a boring mom?? (I realize now I was being a bit ridiculous, but this is seriously what was going through my head)
As the months went by, I had a few experiences that made me more at ease and even got me excited to have a son. One of which was when I was watching a movie, Saving Private Ryan. (I knoooow it's rated R, my husband made me watch it! It's actually really good, and hey, taught me a life lesson, so it can't be that bad.) In the beginning, it shows a really violent scene of these U.S. soldiers storming a beach and basically getting the crud blown out of them. The thing that struck me though, was that these people, these grown men, were crying out for their mommies. Not dad, not even God, but their moms. We shortly after had the lesson in church about the stripling warriors and how they gained their testimonies from their mothers' examples of stalwart faith. The experience that probably had the most effect on me however, was my experience on the set on the New Testament Project. You may have seen casting posters in your church buildings:

That Israelite maiden is pretty fine, am I right?

 Yeah that's me. Didn't get a huge part or anything, but it was an awesome thing to be a part of. Anyway, so I was there the day they shot the crucifixion scene. You can see the whole thing here: http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/he-is-risen?lang=eng
As you might've guessed, it's a pretty heavy scene, and even though I knew the guy wasn't reeeeally Jesus, I was getting emotional! (I partially blame preggo hormones) But the thing that really got the waterworks going was when the "Savior" said the lines "Woman, behold thy son." to his mother Mary, at the foot of his cross. Now there's been a lot of misconceptions regarding this simple phrase. Was he being disrespectful? Like, "Woman! Look at me!" I highly doubt it. No, the way the director told our guy to play it, and the way I think the Savior meant it, was a pleading for his mother to be with him in his final moments of life. There are no words to describe the incredible pain and anguish the Savior went through, but it must have almost just has bad if not worse for his mother to watch him suffer. I suspect that she was looking away, refusing to behold what the mob had done to her precious baby boy. But Mary and Jesus had a special bond, mother and son, and especially since his father had to leave him, he wanted needed his mother's support. As the man playing Jesus said the line, I swear on my life he was looking straight. at. me. He couldn't play the line to the actual Mary at his feet, because the camera wouldn't be able to get a good shot at his face, so he had to pick someone in the middle of the crowd, and he picked me. I felt then that I could not wait to have such a special bond with my own son, and I promised him then that I would always be there for him, through the good and bad. I would be a good example to him, and teach him the things the Lord would have me teach him. At that moment I felt, of course, of course I was supposed to have a boy first. He's going to be the best little boy in the whole world, and he's going to love me as much as I love him. It just felt... right. 

And I couldn't wait to meet him...

Welcome to Us

Well, folks, I'm doing it. I'm finally hopping on the mommy blogger band wagon. My husband will not approve, haha. 

The way I see it, blogging can be just another way to waste more hours on the time sucking vortex that is the internet, BUT if I keep myself in check, I think this could be a good thing. I think keeping a journal is an important thing, for posterity and whatnot, but I haven't written in my journal in forevers. For one, I put it off for so long that I feel like there is so much to catch up on, it's a lost cause. So I figured I should just start fresh. Plus I get writing cramps. I type much faster, and it's nice to know that someone might be reading this now, even if it's just my parents, maybe even my siblings. Although they will probably only read this for updates on my baby. *Sigh* It's hard to compete with one so cute.

Anywho, I guess the best way to start this off would be to introduce ourselves, like I would in a sacrament meeting talk in a new ward. (Mormon reference, sorry, I'll probably make these a lot throughout the blog. If you want to understand them, don't hesitate to join up! Haha) 

Hi, we're the Dunns! I'm Victoria, and my husband and I along with our 4 month old son Jack live in good ol' Provo, UT, Mormon capital of the world. And now I will tell a brief tale of how our family came to be...

 Once upon a time, when I was about 5 my family moved to the dry, hot little city of Lancaster, CA. There, we came to know of the infamous Dunn family, and their ridiculously kind and generous reputation. I really don't think anyone can say a bad word about the Dunns. My husband's father was our Bishop and his mom was my mom's visiting teaching companion. And that my friends, is when they started to plot the marriage of the eldest Mohun girl to the youngest Dunn boy. I don't think I actually ever talked to Robert Dunn until I was probably 16 or so, and even then it was probably only a "Hi, howya doin'?". You see, he is 7 years my senior, and we didn't exactly run in the same social circles. Every time my mom would "joke" about us getting together, I would quickly dismiss the thought. Yeah right mom, like he would ever even consider marrying little ol' me. He'll probably be married by the time I'm allowed to date. Plus isn't he kind of emo? (My husband insists that he was not, but he didn't talk too much around me I guess, and he kind of had that brooding look, at least this is what my teenage self remembers) But lo and behold, by the time it came for me to attend school at BYU, Sister Dunn had told my mother and I (with a *winkwink nudgenudge* kind of look) that Robert had just been royally dumped by his fiancee and was now single once again! I felt bad for the guy, and assumed he probably wouldn't be ready to date again anytime soon, but when he came to visit before school started, he gave my parents his number to give to me, in case I needed anything while I was up in Utah. Awww.
Fast forward to about a month after school started, and as fate would have it, I ran into Mr. Dunn on campus. We talked for a while, and agreed we should "hang out sometime". I nonchalantly added him on Facebook, and he invited me to have soup at his place, and go sledding. I found him to be a lot of fun, but, I admit, I was a little hesitant to fall for him. A) I was just getting over someone else myself. B) This guy was 26, and he liked me, and if I started dating him, he was probably going to ask me to marry him at some point. And I didn't know if I was ready for that. C) Because I knew his family background, I knew he was going to eventually go bald. Could I handle that??? (Hahaha just kiddin' honey :))
Well, after a few months of my head and heart battling it out, I finally just told God that if he asks me, I'm going to say yes soooo stop me now if that's a bad idea... And then I just got a really good feeling. And that was enough for me. We got engaged in July and were married in November in the L.A. Temple.

Happiest. day. ever. :)

And that's the not-so-brief-after-all story of how our moms hooked us up.

Robert is now graduated and working, and I start my second to last semester at BYU next week. (Kill me now Yaaaaaayyy) Really though, I am stubbornly determined to get my degree, and I WILL TRIUMPH. 

And yeah that's basically it. Except of course for our adorable child! The fruit of our loins! The apple of our eye! And all that jazz! Buuuut this post is getting long and I don't want to scare off readers already. SO I'll write all about him in the next post. (Sorry family, you have to read about ME first. ME. Mahaha)

And now there's the question of how I will end my posts... With a question for the general public? With a witty/inspirational quote by some famous dude? Eh, it's really late. How about:

Until next time... peace out.