So Close

Hey everyone...we were so close to going home yesterday, but alas, everything did not go according to plan, and here we still are, it was pretty tough, but the Lord is sovereign. Other than that, not much else is going on...the babies are getting bigger and as far as we know are doing great! We would still love to see anyone who wants to stop by!

Touching Base

I was just letting everyone know that things are pretty stable right now. The babies look great and Monica is doing well.
Thank you guys so much for all of your prayers. This week was a little more normal, I was able to have a couple of meetings that went pretty well.
Please pray as this time as we have mentioned, have put a strain on our relationship with Cade, and is beginning to strain the budget as well. We know the Lord provides all the we need, and we will continue trust Him.
Thank you all for your continued support and concern.

True Community

Well everyone, it has been quite the last week and a half. We are still here, the babies are still inside, and now we wait.
I just wanted to take this quick moment to thank everyone for being as great as they have been. People have brought us meals, emailed us, and just come by to chat, and it has been such a blessing!!!
There is something that a truly awesome man by the name of Scott Ketrow taught us this summer while we were in Colorado. We studied Galatians probably more in depth than any other book I ever had before, at least in a large group setting. There were countless things that were revealed that have truly affected the way I live and believe, and this is one of those things, and it applies to what we have been seeing over the past week and a half. In chapter 5, we are all familiar with the fruit of the spirit, peace, patience, joy, love, kindness, goodness, and self control. Those are found in verses 22 and 23. However, if you look up at verses 14 and 15, Paul talks about loving one another, and not devouring each other, and then you can see he is transitioning to tell us about the Spirit's work in our lives. His work is meant to be shown and displayed in community, amongst other believers, and non believers. We are called to show all of these things towards each other. The Holy Spirit living in us produces these good things so that we can show our faith in the faithfulness of Christ. Mind boggling.
Anyway, all of that is to say, thank you everyone. Thank you for showing your love for Christ and us as we seek out how to best glorify Him during this more than interesting time. We love you all and look forward to hearing from, or seeing you soon!

Cats and The Cradle

Whew, today was quite the day! We could not stop contracting, again...and they upped her tribudline again, and it still did not work, so they put her on some other meds, which more or less worked, but not entirely, but good enough for now. Good news is that they do not think we have dilated any more and the babies look great!! Tomorrow will be 28 weeks, which is a good number, but now that we have arrived here, everyone keeps talking about 30 weeks, while this is understandable, it gets a little tiresome, its like, man, isnt this goal good enough? But the Lord is good and the babies look great, so there is no complaining here, well not much.
The toughest thing right now is dealing with not having our son around us as much anymore...every second I get with him feels very cats and the cradle. I miss him, as does monica and we worry so much about him knowing his mommy and daddy love him. We just want him closer and more accessible. For those of you who do not know, our hospital is about 30 minutes away from his daycare, and 45 minutes from where we have been living. Even then when I bring him by, he can only handle so much being in this little room. Please pray that we would be able to continue to bond with him as he grows and we go through this time apart. Talk to you all soon!

The Wonderful World of Antepartum

Even up here we seem to always have some kind of issue, but things are much better. Twice so far we have had to do extra doses of the medicine she is already on but both times it calmed everything down, and now we are just getting comfortable in our new digs. I got to spend some time with Cade last night, as we went to my brother's cross country meet, and he saw his mommy some, so that was good also. We are really bummed because we do not know how we will be able to see him everyday this week.
I am so proud of my wife! We found out yesterday from someone who has been on both magnesium sulfate, and had breast cancer, that chemo was better than the magnesium, and my wife made it through with flying colors!
The babies are doing fine and moving around, which is great!!Fell free to call us or come by and see if us if you are around!

Movin on Up

Hey everyone, well as before, I could be wrong, but we just might make it past tomorrow. We are on the trib pump now and it is working out pretty well, so we will see how it progresses. Beyond that we have moved up stairs to the hall for women they are trying to stop from having babies, so now we have some company, and a room with a window, and all kinds of stuff, so we are pleased. We just had an ultrasound and saw that both the babies are breathing!!!This is a huge developmental step that puts them way ahead of where they are supposed to be at this point! We are very excited at their great development. Although we think the babies will come soon, we are glad to be in more comfortable surroundings for now.
Please continue to check, I will be constantly updating!

Sleepless in Labor and Delivery

hey all, well if you read the last blog, and then you read what I am about to tell you, then you might begin to think I am some kind of doctor, because everything I said would happen did. About 3 o'clock, they came in and gave Monica three shots of a drug called Tribudaline in the course of an hour at 20 minute intervals, not very fun. All of this while her body was trying to come off the magnesium sulfate stuff. She was and still is having a good bit of chest pain, and it is a little difficult to breath, but it is a little better than say an hour or so ago.
What we are going to try and do today is put Monica and a Tribudaline pump. Basically they take an insulin pump that diabetics would use and instead of insulin, they put the Tri in there and it constantly feeds the body the drug, which should, and again I should, hold off the contractions. Some people take very well to this and everything gets better for a couple of weeks, others however it doesnt really help it all. IF you are asking my opinion on this, well I think we will still have babies on Saturday, if that is any indication of what I think this stuff will do. The drugs are really beginning to affect Monica, and so is lying in the same position for four days without real food, and for Monica, who is a pretty healthy person, this is really tough for her.
We will see our specialist soon, and will have more information from him as well as to what kind of time line we are looking at. IT was funny this morning because when we talked to one of the regular doctors, she said that we would try to get to 34 weeks, yes we all know this is the best, but whether we are pessimistic, or just plain arrogant, we kind of laughed. Something I did not note yesterday when we talked to the NICU people was that it is actually good that Monica has been laboring for so long now. She said that babies will know when the body is trying to get rid of them and their little vital functions will start kicking in and working the way they are supposed when they come out. Basically they know that they have to step up to the plate, to which I responded, "Thats my boys". Talk to you all soon.

Not quite back again....yet...

Well I am about to call it a night, its roughly 12:15, I know I need to sleep, but there are times when you just cant.
We are officially off of the magnesium stuff now, however not for good reasons, as Monica was getting readdy to go to sleep she began seeing double, a bad side effect of that particular medicine which is something we watch for. They stopped the mag immediatly, and guess what...we are having the consistent uterine irritability again. This generally leads into full on contractions. I have been telling everyone all day that I think Saturday will be go day, but this might change things. Like I said we are all still positive, and praying for the best for our soon to be with us sons. I have every confidence that they will be fine and wrestling with myself and their brother in no time. I got a chance to sneak away from the hospital today and take Cade to a park and play with him for a little bit. It was great! I miss him so much and just want him to know that his daddy loves him, and he and mommy have not forgotten about him.
I assume you guys will here from me again later tonight, but wont get anything until when you get up, so i will try to keep the remaining things short. Good night all!!!

There and...

For all of you Lord of the Rings folks, you know what the next title will probably be...that is because they have tried to step monica back off the drugs again, and we pretty much know that this evening the contractions will probably start back up again and she will have to have the doses upped again.
The day has been pretty uneventful otherwise though. So many of you have visited or called, or sent emails, and we thank you so much for your prayers, care, and love. We had our consultation with the NICU people today, and felt pretty good after that. They told us the different things they have to do with preemies this young, and it was not near as bad as we thought it might, they may not even have to be on ventilators!!! As far as coming home, that will be a while, but we know they are in great hands here. They have a great crew and we feel very blessed. For those of you who want particulars on what they have to do with preemie babies you can email me with your questions, cause there is alot, but now i am informed and can pass that information on. If anything drastic happens tonight, I will let you know, and I will also give a final report whenever we turn out the lights for the night.
A word from Monica: ~As typed by Austin...Hey everyone I just wanted to send out a little note to let you know how I am, though completely exhausted, I know the Lord is taking care of and watching over us, between the peace the Lord Himself is giving me, the great NICU doctors here, and our amazing Specialist Doctor, I know that myself and the babies are going to be fine, although I will be happy when this time is over, I feel so blessed that the Lord has counted me worthy to suffer for His children's sake, thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts, if you are in town please come by and visit or call, I would love to see you guys...talk to you soon.

Not much to Say yet

We just had the ultra sound, and so far there has not been much change in her cervix, but there is still bleeding that probably is coming from the placenta, which is not a good thing, but the babies still look okay. They have had to re-up her Magnesium Sulfate again, which bluntly speaking, really sucks. So we are really just in a holding pattern until we know something else, which really is not much. Our specialist doctor is great and does a good job at telling us what is going on and what the next logical steps are.
Pray for Monica as she has pretty much been in labor since tuesday, even though the doctors have not termed it that, it has been really rough on her. This medicine does not help you feel good at all. Like I said, I will keep the info coming as I get it, feel free to contact us or come visit if you are in the area.

Thurs. Morning 9:45 AM

Hey everyone...we are currently waiting on the ultrasound people. There has been a little bleeding and that is not anything to necessarily be concerned about yet, but we are going to continue to be cautious. We just spoke with the specialist and we are going to do some more tests, one is actually to determine whether or not she will deliver soon or not. So the next time we check in we should have a whole lot of information. Our doctor is really impressed with us because we have done so much research, so that helps things from becoming too scary. The really good news is that the babies heartbeats and tests on the monitor look more like 32 week olds instead of 27, and they measure like 29 week olds on the ultrasounds. So God is taking control and making everything work out to His glory just like we prayed and knew would happen. This is just another exciting chapter in our story and His as well. We will continue to keep everyone informed.

As of 10 PM Oct 3rd

All is well. Still having some contractions. Just took some nite nite medicine, and we are winding down. I promise more info as things happen. Thanks everyone.