George is already taking after his big brother, Leroy...

Did you know we have a son named Leroy?
We do.  His daddy named him and I had nothing to do with it.
Although it has grown on me and now I think it's pretty cute and fitting.  

This is Leroy:
And this is my semi permanent view of him.

As I've mentioned before, Leroy took it upon himself to name his new baby brother,  George.
(affectionately named after his favorite curious little monkey)
Although his parents have not agreed to this name, their indecisiveness on finding a real name has resulted in the default mode of referring to the baby as "George."

This is George:  

on the way to the doctor at 27 weeks in the oven:

George is already trying to be like his big brother, Leroy.

In case you weren't aware, Benson was ready to come into the world a little sooner than he should have.  I wrote about it here in a post entitled, "Never Put off til tomorrow what you can do today, because you might go into labor."
You'd think, with a post titled like that, a girl would learn a thing or two. 

Since we had preterm labor last time at 31 weeks, they started me on progesterone shots at 16 weeks this time in order to try to avoid preterm labor.

I, rolling my eyes, took the shots, just knowing that what happened with Benson's pregnancy was a complete fluke and that this time around I'd go to 41 weeks and have to drink castor oil or something to get the kid to come out.

Well, I was wrong.

I went in Friday for my shot (26 weeks and 1 day) and mentioned to the doctor that I'd been feeling a number of contractions.  (Anywhere from two to five an hour) He sent me over to the hospital to be put on a monitor to make sure that "what I was feeling was indeed contractions."  He said I'd probably just be there for a couple of hours.

They stuck the monitor on my belly for a few minutes and the nurse walked out of the room.  She was back before too long and showed me the contraction printout strip.  Even though I was only feeling contractions every 15-20 minutes, I was actually having them every TWO to THREE minutes, regularly.

So of course, when the doctor saw that, he admitted me and started me on meds to stop the contractions.

It was like a really bad, you've got to be kidding me, form of deja vu.

They went ahead and gave the steroid shots to develop the baby's lungs in case there was no stopping it.  Having been through it before, I was definitely calmer this time around, but probably a little more disgruntled.  Like, are you SERIOUS?!! What on EARTH and I doing WRONG??!!

Praise the LORD I haven't dilated any!  That has been our constant prayer, that even though I'm contracting, it won't cause me to dilate.   After monitoring me overnight, they sent us home. (Again, PRAISE THE LORD we didn't have to stay in the hospital like we did last time) The prescription is full bedrest until the little munchkin makes his appearance (or until 36 weeks, whichever comes first.)

I'll be 27 weeks tomorrow.

HOW CAN YOU BE ON BEDREST WITH A THREE AND A HALF YEAR OLD?!
Uno.  Hi Ho Cherry-O.  Cartoons.  Books.  Puzzles. Starfall letter games
And, the BEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD.  

Benson's hoping this never ends.

And I'm thankful for a buddy and a sweet little reminder that I can hold onto and look back and remember all that we went through to get HIM here and how every single step was so worth it, and in light of what he is to us now, all of the difficulties we went through, were NOTHING.  Just LOOKING at him and kissing his curly little head of hair is more of an encouragement to me than anything I could imagine. 

I'm so thankful for my TWO baby boys and even though I'd have written their birth stories differently if I were the author, I can honestly look back and say that I know it was God's PROTECTION for us to go through all we did last time and I have faith that He is in control of all of this and knows best. 

So it's bed rest for us.  Indefinitely. 

Another PRAISE is that, this time, I can get up and go to the bathroom and take one 10 minute SHOWER every day (since I'm not dilated and I guess they aren't afraid the baby's going to fall out,) which, had that never been a restriction on me, I wouldn't appreciate the FREEDOM there is in SHOWERING!!!  Praise the Lord for Showers!!!

I'm still just contracting away... same as last time.  The medicine seems to calm those small two to three minute contractions (which if left alone would turn into monster ones) but I'm still contracting regularly throughout the day.  Apparently this is just the way I make babies.

It's pretty frustrating not having a REASON as to why this happens to me.  There's no EXPLANATION other than, "you're just prone to preterm labor," which isn't very comforting.

But again, I trust Lord.  I trust that even when things don't make sense and there's nothing I can do to make it any different, He is in CONTROL and He is GOOD.

I'm so thankful for our family who has rallied around us.

I'm exceedingly thankful for our church family at Hartsville Pres who have been such an incredible blessing on so many different levels.  Meals, playdates for Benson, PRAYERS and encouragement.  God is so good to have given us such a sweet family of believers here in Hartsville.  It's incredible to see the body of Christ at work during a time like this.  And I'm so thankful he's provided that for us in this place that is just now becoming "home" to us.

I'm abundantly thankful for my Husband who already wears so many hats, and yet is now being stretched in even more directions, yet has such a patient, cheerful, servants heart through each minute.

We are blessed.

And for the next ten or so weeks, we'll be blogging from the bed. 
It should be exciting.  Riviting.  And HOPEFULLY, extremely uneventful. 

I know you can hardly wait :)

Thanks for praying along with us.