Lana’s Birth Story

Hi, it's Mama. Here is the story of how you came to join us, little Lana Marie... *** It’s taken me a little longer to get to actually writing down the story of Lana’s birth than it did Della’s after she was born, but such is to be expected for #2 when #1 is constantly running around the house. Hopefully I haven’t forgotten any of the important details already! When Della was born, I had no idea what was happening. I didn’t know I was in labor, just that something really really hurt. So by the time we finally got to the hospital with her, I was already 9 cm dilated and basically ready to push. She arrived approximately 20 minutes after we walked through the hospital doors. Woah. So with Dv2.0 (we didn’t know if we were having a boy or girl, so she won’t become “Lana” quite yet), I knew I should probably pay a little more attention to everything to make sure we got to the hospital with some time to spare. Especially since my doctor said it was highly likely that I would deliver equally as fast, if not faster, than I did with Della. Again, woah. I definitely didn’t want to have a baby at home or in the car. Yuck. Then I found out I was group B strep positive this time around, so my doctor explained that ideally they wanted me at the hospital at least 4 hours before delivery so they could administer penicillin through an IV. They like to give 2 doses 4 hours apart to help protect the baby as he/she comes through the birth canal with this. I’m not entirely sure what would happen if the baby were to contract group B strep, but I didn’t really feel like finding out. So needless to say, I was on high alert for any unusual aches, pains, or just generally odd feelings for the couple weeks before Dv2.0's birth. Della came 8 days early, and my doctor said women tend to have similar gestational lengths with subsequent babies, so I was fully prepared for another early delivery. With our trip to Peoria exactly 2 weeks before my due date, you’d better believe we had everything we could possibly need for an out of state delivery packed in the car for that one – my hospital bag, a hospital bag for Della, the infant car seat, and all of my prenatal records in case a doctor in Peoria would have to do the delivery. I knew that if we weren’t 150% prepared, we would definitely be coming home with an Illinois-born kid. (not that that’s a bad thing, that’s where i’m from. we just didn’t exactly want to have to deal with all that.) So once we got home from our weekend in Peoria (did i ever tell you about that trip? it was awesome – i’ll have to get to that in another post.) it was full-on wait and see mode.…

Convergence

Poor Lana, already getting screwed as a sibling to an older sister that has already shown us the path that little ones take when they grow up. Her firsts will no doubt be equally amazing, but they will often be shared experiences with Della. That being said, since we are now a family of four, and though I would love to have an individual virtual diary for both the girls, the maintenance of three different blogs doesn't really make sense when I can bring everything under one umbrella. So, Lana Lost in Thought was the shortest blog in history. I have imported her two posts as well as the entire Della’s Daily Dose blog into iRau. This will be a one stop shop for all things Rau, big and small. As it says, All Rau, All the Time. /della and /lana will cease to work but the fun, growth, and experiences will persist right here.

Taking The BIG Plunge

The weekend has arrived that Jocelyn and I have been furiously planning for what seems like years, our wedding. Leading up to the wedding I wasn't nervous at all. I unfortunately was sick and spent the entire week trying to get over my cold. Friday after work ended the running around and craziness started. I was able to relax for an hour at home before I had to run to get the DJ lighting from a couple establishments. There was a mix up on the lighting that I had originally ordered and I spent Thursday frantically calling around trying to find some lights. I think I found the last two sets in Milwaukee, a huge disaster narrowly averted. Rich and I hopped in the Montero and drove around Milwaukee picking the stuff up. A spring snow and rush hour traffic made for crappy driving. After we got the lights I took Rich to pick up his tux. Once we got back downtown I stopped by Luedke and DeBruin who were having a couple beers at Mo's pub. Rich and I had one and headed back to my apartment. Once back at the apartment I got ready for the rehearsal. Jocelyn and I didn't feel like driving so we got a ride with her mom. We were a little late but being the bride and groom we had the right. The rehearsal was actually pretty long. The pastor took his time in explaining everything very thoroughly. After the rehearsal we headed to Turner Hall for dinner and drinks. Many had the classic Friday fish fry and the food was great. Once dinner was over we stayed at the Hall and had a couple more beers. Jocelyn went home early to get her beauty rest but my job as the groom was to go out and enjoy my last night as a single man. So I went out with a couple of the Marti boys, DeBruin and Luedke. We went to the German beer hall that is right by Turner Hall. We had a couple more beers there and a five person shot on a snow ski. I was home about one and to bed at about two after I did some wedding day chores. The day of reckoning. I woke up about eight and got my stuff together, checking and double checking. At nine I headed to Kenosha to pick up the rest of the DJ equipment. On the way I stopped at McDonald's for a wedding day sausage egg McMuffin and a breakfast burrito. I got back to Milwaukee just after eleven. As soon as I got back to the apartment everyone started showing up. Todd and Greg showed up followed by Marti and my two brothers. Everyone just sat around, drank a few beers, got ready and waited for 1:30 to roll around. We got to the church on time and accounted for. The groom and his men hung out in the basement and watched the Brewer game on…

The Greater Chicago Links, Fore!

This entry should be much longer but once again there are just too many details that should be included that there is no way I can remember them all. That combined with a booze haze makes what should be a long story short. I had my Chicago bachelor party on Saturday. I drove down with my brother, Evraets and Billy. We drove to Chitown and checked into the Hyatt Regency in downtown. I got a steal on Priceline.com at $100 a room. After we checked in we took a cab to the Cubbie Bear in Wrigleyville where I met up with a bunch of my friends from Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago. Once there we started our game of bar golf. Bar golf is scored like regular gold with one drink at a bar being par and each drink after that being one under. We had a scorecard and itinerary all made up so we were well prepared. We all started on our way wandering from bar to bar. Some of the bar events that occurred during our wandering were cigar smoking, wooden Indian posing, other party food raiding, batting cage swinging and Fat Tire Ale (imported from Colorado) drinking. We were doing really good until about hole number nine. We stayed there a little too long because one of our friends from Madison worked there. So we camped out there and since there was a Qdoba across the street some people went get something to eat. After that, the group got pretty split up and it was everyone for themselves after that point. I tried to plod on with my cousin Steve. About a half hour behind was my brother, Evraets and a couple other friends but as far as the golf game was concerned it was over. I was -11 after nine so I'm pretty sure I was winning. We continued drinking at various establishments throughout the night and we ended up at an after hours bar someplace in the Chicago with a skeleton crew of about six of us. Everyone was a mess, including me. I was super tired and drunk so my brother and I left a couple diehards and cabbed it back to the hotel. We got back around four so I was pretty mad when Billy started thrashing around the hotel room at seven. I was pissed but I knew he wanted to get home so we woke up and drove back. I was home by noon which was nice because I could rest the rest of the day. It was a good time.