Spend the Night Party

What better way to lift my spirits than have my Claire Bear come spend the night with me and hang out all day. Claire spent all day with me in my room yesterday and slept on the couch. This morning we ate pancakes and birthday cake ice cream in my bed. We took a nap together, wrote a story together, played cards and did word searches. We had a great time. She helped me write verses for our scripture wall and it made me feel so peaceful inside.

Babies are doing well today. We had a little scare about 10:00 after I had been off the monitors for about 2 hours, the nurse couldn't find baby A's heart beat...she could have picked mine up though because it was beating 200 beats a minute it felt like. She had to bring the ultrasound machine in to find him. He is very low and therefore sometimes hard to pick up on the external monitors. Anyway, they both monitored well for 2 hours so they took me off to eat lunch and take a break for about an hour. I will hook back up at 2:00 and stay on until 4:00. We are already half way through ANOTHER day. Remember dear friends, every single day at this point is so important. I am demanding an ultrasound tomorrow morning, (a real ultrasound with my specialist, the high resolution one that can update us more on Baby A's status)and give us some insight as to why he seems to be showing a little stress at times. More than likely the cords are being compressed at this point (very typical) and of course that is the major risk in losing them. So, we are praying all waking moments now. I will share some news hopefully tomorrow from the ultrasound.

Keep praying! Thank you all who sent me verses for my scripture wall. I will post a picture of it as soon as my husband (who is working overtime being mommy and daddy right now)brings me my transfer cord.

One of God's Angels

One of God's Angels came to see me this morning. She came in the form of a nurse. You may be asking yourself if I am just simply sleep deprived and losing my mind,actually that could be a possibility, however, let me give you the last 24 hours in a nut shell.
Yesterday morning, Baby A began having heart decelerations. This is common to see and isn't too worrisome unless a pattern persist or the baby's heart rate becomes dangerously low. At first, I thought, great we are only 5 days into this madness and we already have something to "worry" about. Throughout the day, the heart decelerations worsened. The doctor on call ordered the steroid shots, "just in case" and last night I spent two hours talking to the head neonatal intensive care doctor. Of course, during the conversation with the NICU doctor, they give you 100 more reasons to "worry". I did however really like this doctor and he ended our conversation with how doctors really are only able to do so much for these preemie babies, and the rest lies in God's hands. He even said, babies that are prayed for tend to do better. He said miracles happen around him all the time. I can't help but know this man believes in the power of our Mighty God.
Fast forward to midnight, I am preparing to go to sleep when all of a sudden the strong steady sound of a galloping horse (baby A's heart beat)begins to slow down (as it had earlier in the day) but this time it stayed down for a significant amount of time.Slowly it came back up and then immediately dropped again. The second time it dropped to 90 and very slowly crept back up to 110. Of course alarms started going off and my nurse rushed in here immediately. She had me turn and readjust my position, it didn't help. Then she began pushing around on my abdomen to arouse the baby and eventually the heart rate stabilized. Well, after a scare like that, drifting off into a deep sleep is the last thing on my agenda. This process continued several more times between 1am and 4am. Needless to say, there was NO sleep and ALOT of "worry" all night. So, here is where God sends me His angel.

6:00am Nurse Eva arrives. She can obviously tell I am a complete wreck of nerves and beyond exhaustion. After she talks to me about the course of events from yesterday and last night, she says, "Can I pray with you?" Her prayer was completely God speaking to me through her. I have no doubt about it. I wish you all could have been in the room with us. Purely amazing. She prayed the most amazing prayer of peace and of hope and faith in our Mighty God. She held my hands tightly, prayed so genuinely, cried with me and she had only introduced herself to me 5 minutes earlier. This woman was sent to me for a very real purpose. God sent her to reassure me that HE has it under control. I shouldn't have a reason to doubt that He doesn't. I felt the Holy Spirit in my room this morning, and God sent Eva to me at just the right time. He says, "Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged,for I am your God, I will protect you and hold you in My right hand" I know that worry is a lack of Faith and I don't' want my God to think that I don't have Faith. Please pray for me, I am so weak and powerless, He is so strong and powerful.

As always, I will never be able to thank everyone who is praying for us and our miracle babies. Please continue and make sure to thank GOD for what He has done already.

Steroid Shot In Butt!

This is Rob writing. I was able to spend 3 hours with Dana after work today without kids thanks to my mother and mother-in-law. She is getting rather restless...would love to walk around the hallways or outside, but is confined to her bed. We had several heart rate decelerations with one of the babys this afternoon which prompted the doctor to give her a shot of betamethasone in the hip. She'll receive another shot...same time...same place...other cheek tomorrow. The shot is to help with lung development in case of delivery in the next 7 days. We obviously hope that's not the case, but is a definite possibility.

The doctor on call visited and said she believes the deceleration happens in just about everyone that's monitored constantly...that it's from the babies rolling onto the cords and compressing blood flow.

Contractions have been much better the last 2 days. No more medicine has been given to subside them.

We appreciate everyones help, phone calls, rides to and from, meals, and prayers. Please continue to pray for safe, growing babies...for peace and patience for Dana...for wisdom for those making critical decisions...and thanks for allowing us to make it this far.

Scripture Wall

In my loneliness and boredom, I have decided that I need a scripture wall in my room. I think having scripture plastered all over my wall will help uplift me. I am really trying hard to stay strong and positive. The nights are the absolute worst, very quiet and lonely. I miss my husband (you know how we are joined at the hip), my heart aches to kiss my sweet children, smell their watermelon shampoo and baby lotion. I miss reading to them at night and praying with them before they drift off to sleep. I am so appreciative to all of my family and friends who have made special trips up to see me in the last few days. Days are extremely LONG when you sit in a hospital bed and watch each hour pass by. God has shown me so much through this experience already though...I know you have heard it already, but ENJOY THE SIMPLE THINGS IN LIFE. I am very thankful to be here and still be pregnant, that means our babies are still thriving and surviving. By the way Brookwood has never had a set of mono boys yet...I have (of course you know me) been asking every single nurse and doctor. There have been four sets of girl mono twins born this current year here at Brookwood. So, miracles happen and we will continue to pray God's miracle in our lives with these baby boys.

Psalm 66:5 Come and see what our awesome God has done, what awesome miracles he performs for people.

Please comment back to me your favorite verse, so I can create my scripture wall. Or just e-mail it to me at dana.pate@yahoo.com

It's All In The Name

We have decided on names! Naming these precious miracle babies really wasn't all that difficult. We have three extraordinary men in our family that we wanted our sons to be named after. The first man, James Daniel, is Rob's amazingly strong, Godly grandfather. He is a remarkable man and we love him dearly. Therefore, Baby A, will be named James Daniel.
James 1:17 says, "Every good and perfect gift comes from above" This of course our family believes to be very true!
The other two men in our lives we value and honor and love so much are Michael David Pate and Mose John Howa. Our dads are both incredible men of strength and compassion, and even possess a little fiery disposition (which I can relate to) , so therefore, Baby B, will be named John David after our fathers.
So, please keep our boys, James and John David in your daily prayers.

Growing, growing and more growing!

28 weeks! Thank you uncle Christopher Martin for snaping a picture of the "boys" growing in my belly. We need to keep them in there growing as long as possible. Even if my skin is turning transparent..haha!

Happy Thanksgiving

The Pate Family has so much to be thankful for today. I am 28 weeks and stuck in a hospital bed...PRAISE our MIGHTY GOD! I know there have been so many prayers lifted up for us over the last few months to make it to this glorious day. I just want to say thank you so much to all of our supportive family and friends who have prayed for our very special miracle babies.

Update time: We did speak with Dr. Gonzalez yesterday and he has ordered continuous monitoring of heart rates. What does that mean for me, I am totally bed ridden ( I am allowed to come off for bathroom and one shower a day). Is anyone laughing yet at the fact that I, Dana Pate, am confined to a bed!!!! I obviously am not sleeping at night, also started having contractions every two minutes last night and had a shot of something that made me pure crazy, my muscles are so sore from not moving around, my back begins to ache and cramp within an hour of being in the same position, I generally have to stay flat in order to keep the babies on the monitors....I can't even get up to get my own junk food off the top of my fridge. I have to call a nurse to come in here just for that feat! And guess what else...I AM SO THANKFUL FOR ALL OF IT! I will endure whatever discomforts I need to for these babies.


I am going to try and eat my breakfast now...I will share names of the babies on the next update.

As always, please keep praying for GROWING, SAFE babies. Thank you!

Miracle Babies Monitored!

I have officially been in the hospital on "monitoring" status for 24 hours now. Wow! It feels like weeks. We are praying for a LONG stay because that would be the best for the babies. Dr. Gonzalez came by to visit this morning. He said we would look at the babies on ultrasound hopefully tomorrow, Wednesday. My precious grandparents were here for a visit and we just happen to be discussing God's miracle He is working through us with these precious, rare babies. I of course made mention to all standing around how thankful I was that God channeled me to Dr. Gonzalez and what a "miracle" he was in monitoring these babies. His exact words were, "I am nothing special, just an instrument of God." He then said, "I don't know how people can not believe in God who work around here, because miracles do happen, and I see them happen." He is speaking of our miracles. We of course still have the "chance" of losing them, but Dr. Gonzalez has already said, "Look how far these babies have already come." Can I just say how comforting it is to have a doctor who is extremely knowledgeable, yes, but also who is open about his Faith in God and credits HIM for the good work he is able to do. Amen to those prayers of "send me to the right people to guide us in this pregnancy". I feel completely sure of the decision we made to come to Brookwood.



So far, the monitoring hasn't been too terrible. I enjoy listening to two precious heartbeats throughout my day. I will have more updates tomorrow after our ultrasound hopefully.



Keep praying for GROWING, SAFE babies. I am so thankful to have so many people praying for our miracle babies.