Are Two Babies easier than One?

So everyone always comments on how hard it must be to have twins; especially when they were

babies. Naturally, when we were in the midst of it, I always said "this is all we know" so in essence, we didn't feel like it was any harder than any other baby situation.

Now that we have had another baby with a different 'personality', I think I may understand where this was coming from. If we had two babies like our current one, our experience would have been quite a bit different. Our twin girls may have been quite the exception.
With the introduction of Greta, came the introduction of constant holding, lots of baby carrier usage, and very minimal time in the bassinet, not to mention any other non-human contraption. We never experienced this with twins. There was not much crying, and both of them were quite content in the pack n play, bouncy chair, swing etc., not to mention many night time hours in their beds.

The irony of course is that while I was pregnant this time around, I joked about how, since we were only having one baby this time, that this one would get a lot more holding time and we may even go overboard on the individual baby attention because, well, we only have one baby, not two. And that we might never be able to put her down! Haha...the jokes on us!!

However, I must say that while it might feel like this "one" baby is harder than the two we had first- the first time, we did not have additional children hanging around. I was not prepared for my little 4 year old helpers. Really not prepared. Still to this day, they are so all about Greta, that I notice I am constantly saying things like "Not while I'm changing her diaper! Not while she's eating! Not while she's crying! Not now, she's happy!" It may have taken nearly 7 months, but I have learned that I have to lay off a bit.
Sure, this baby girl is different than Lucy or Stella... she's Greta!! So not only have I stopped complaining to myself how different things are this time, I am marveling at...well... how different things are this time! I can hold my one baby, without worrying about the other one. I can go to the store or park with my one baby in a carrier, and I can change one baby's diaper (and not have another one in line!) In addition, its OK if her sisters always want to play with her; they are going to look out for her and love her, so I need to suck it up and just let them:)

So were two babies easier than one? Maybe; since the two were first. But really...two babies were different than one. And two 4-year olds and one baby? Well, it doesn't really matter what it is, because its us! And we are getting more creative every day...

The Baltimore Riots

So now that things have calmed down I am ready to write.
The day that the girls and I flew back from Minnesota (April 25), Dave came to pick us up at the airport and said he was running late because of the protests going on downtown. Now, knowing D and a few occasions in the past, I thought he was blowing things out of proportion. Later that night I found out after watching the news, that they held the Oriole fans inside Camden Yards until it was deemed 'safe'. Dave made a good call.
So the protests happened on Saturday, someone trashed a 7 Eleven, and I thought that was as dramatic as things were going to get.

We live in downtown Baltimore, but I wasn't worried. To be quite honest, it never even crossed my mind that things might escalate. Less than 36 hours later, the chaos was in full swing. There were peaceful protestors, but all we saw via media channels were fires, lines of police in their riot gear, broken glass, shouting, and a lot of very angry people.

We were glued to the coverage of what was happening. While we did not see anything out our window yet, we heard the endless sirens and countless helicopters overhead. I honestly couldn't believe this was really happening. And it seemed as though our police force and our city had no clue how to handle this.

As night came, more and more people seemed to be coming out, but primarily to do damage. We have a Family Dollar across the street from our house and we were just waiting...
Around midnight, as we were attempting to sleep, we started hearing the cars pulling up to the store across the street. I could hear the chatter of small groups of teenagers saying things like "hey, look, there's the Family Dollar, get your bat". The first group had no success. Soon a new group of teens took a shot with their bats and bricks- they got in. Family Dollar has a security service that monitors the outside of their store after-hours. The man on the intercom tried asking them in his most authoritative voice to leave, but quickly gave up, and was silent for the next 4 hours.

Four hours. Thats how long people kept coming to loot the store across the street that we have found very convenient on many occasions. We called 911. We couldn't get through. We couldn't get through for almost an hour. We finally did and told them what was happening; all they could say was they would see what they could do. We were worried that someone might set the store on fire as they had done to other similar businesses. We kept calling the cops. We continued to have problems getting through. Around 2AM we got through again and they said they would escalate the priority.

The police never arrived.
The store was never set on fire, at least.

We then spent a week hanging out with the national guard.
Crazy. This is looking out on the street from D's work.

I am not going to write in detail as to why the riots happened, as you can easily search Freddie Gray. Many people said that this wasn't what the family wanted, and wasn't the way to get justice. But let me say this. The riots made international news. And as of today (May 17, 2015), there are 6 officers charged with essentially letting a man die in their custody, a man that should probably not have been arrested to begin with.

Things got out of control. But you can't say that they didn't get their point across. Its sad that it came to this. This city already has a pretty rough reputation. Baltimore, let's fix this. Ill be interested in seeing how things progress as I sit in my future home at a location TBD in nice, quiet, Minnesota.

Baby Greta, Welcome

She is three months now.. but here's her story:)

It was a Monday at around 6:30AM when I felt the first dull contraction while lying in bed. By 9, they were consistent at 7 minutes apart. We told the girls that they might have a new baby sister today! They ran and told mom who had arrived just the week before. We brought the girls to school and then Dave and I walked to Tiffany & Ryan's for a quick visit and then to Panera for lunch. The contractions are still 7 minutes apart. 

By 3, we were all back home, and Dave and I figured we probably should pack! Finally around 4PM the contractions progressed to 5 minutes apart. I mistakenly answered a work call around this time- if they only knew why I had to cut it short! Things starting picking up quickly at this point. I packed, showered, ate some soup and before I knew it, the contractions were becoming pretty intense and I started thinking we might not make it.

On the way to the hospital I asked Dave to call Jen and Tiffany (who were going to act as my advocates- we termed them my faux-doulas) to let them know it was time! We arrived at Mercy hospital at 7PM and had to go through the admission process and then triage. In triage I was 7cm and my water broke all over the floor! They quickly walked me to my room, and though it was only minutes later, I was now 10cm and ready to go. I refused the strap-on monitor since I did not want to lie down so I had a nurse pressing a stethoscope with what seemed to be all her strength on my abdomen (probably the worst part of the whole thing!). My fave OB was on call and she let me choose my position, surprise! I only pushed for 10 minutes or so (of course it felt like an hour) but soon met my beautiful baby girl!

Everything went so fast once we were in the hospital that when Tiffany came they told her I was still in triage, but the next time she asked, I had already delivered!

Greta Marie Treiber was born on Monday October 20, 2014 at 8:21PM, 8lbs 4oz, 19 3/4 inches.

Here she is today at 3 months old, 11lbs 10 oz!! Time flies!

Holidays in MN brings cheer and winter woes

Apparently I set this as a "scheduled" post, I was a little off on the date:)

A few days after we arrived was our first doctors visit for Miss Greta. She had a cough. They had to
test her for Pertussis (whooping cough) as she did not have her 2 month vaccines yet. Just a little nose swab they said, and of course that is what I was picturing. But really, it was a 6 inch or so long thin wire that they stuck up her poor little nose and into the back of her throat. Yaaaaa! Anyway, she was negative so that's good.

So on we go we go with some normal holiday activities: We made cookies, wrapped gifts, opened gifts, hung with the fam, and of course ate lutefisk and some raw beef with a little raw egg and onion mixed in for good taste. We had a little soiree for Bobs birthday on
Christmas eve and then had a brunch on Christmas morning at my parents with some traditional breakfast fare, sweet treats, and spicy libations. We then proceeded to duplicate our 2013 Christmas day outing and went bowling! Good ol' Sun Ray Bowling Lanes doesn't disappoint. We got the two lanes
at the end so we didn't have to worry about wandering offspring and went at it for our 2 hours of unlimited bowling.

We had our German Christmas celebration with my parents and sis and fam; ate the aforementioned grub of jello fish  and guhuctus and exchanged generosities of the season.

We visited the extended fam too; the cousin lot keeps expanding!!

On New Year's Eve Dave and I hit the Nordeast corridor to watch Paul play in his band "The Drug Budget" as we rang in 2015.

Good times!