Date Night

Thanks to my mom being here, Reed and I were able to go out for an evening.  It was really nice to have a few hours away together.  There is a 5 star hotel in our city that has a nice restaurant on the top floor.  We enjoyed good food and live music.  It was such a nice treat!  I'm not sure we are going to let my mom leave in another week.  :)

Istanbul Trip

We headed to Istanbul two weeks ago to get a second opinion on our son's health.  To bring you up to date:  At 10 days old, Abram was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection.  He spent 3 days in the hospital getting IV antibiotics.  Our original reason for taking him to the doctor was because he was having so much trouble eating.  So after this diagnosis, we thought that maybe somehow his infection was causing him to not want to eat.  Well, after antibiotics his eating did not improve.  He was in so much pain every feeding, arching his back, screaming, and lots of gas.  We went back two weeks later and he was diagnosed with a second urinary tract infection.  Praise the Lord for a good friend of ours who is a doctor in the states.  He recommended redoing the urine sample test again, questioning the validity of the test.  The second sample we tried to catch his urine in a cup, so we didn't have to use a bag sample. This test came out clean, proving that he had been misdiagnosed and the bag test was possibly contaminated.  It makes us wonder now if he ever had an urinary tract infection to begin with.  We may never know.  But the other strange thing was that his blood work indicated a possible infection of some sort.  We couldn't figure out what any of this had to do with his pain when eating and if he was really sick or not.  

We ended up deciding that we needed to go to Istanbul and get to the bottom of this.  We had lots of tests run and an endoscopy done and we discovered he has acid reflux.  His sphincter in his esophagus doesn't close all the way.  This will get better as he grows.  Currently, his feeding has gotten way better as I have had to really watch what I eat, subsequently less acid reflux issues.  His blood work all came back normal.  We were so thankful!  We will never fully know if Abram had a real infection or not and what was up with his blood work being so strange, but we trust that God knows and had it all in His hands.  

All this to say, it has been a challenging and confusing few months concerning what was going on with Abram, but we are so thankful that we know he really is a healthy boy.  

We tried to make our Istanbul time fun for the boys and not all doctor's appointments.  

Here are the boys excited to go on a sudden trip!  

 We visited an aquarium.  The boys loved the sharks and sting rays the best.  Gotta love the photo-shopped picture!  

Asher pretends to be a sting ray around the house now.  He was enamored by them.  

We took many modes of transportation.  Asher and Urban loved the ferry boat.

 The boys enjoyed playing outside.

We took the boys to a play place that had a large ship in it.  They are still talking about it!

Playing in the ball pit. 

And here is Abram.  Almost 2 months old!  

We were very thankful for the good care we received at the hospital in Istanbul, but are also glad to be back home!

Asher's Class

The first semester of preschool just ended for Asher.  He got his first report card!  We are so proud of Asher and how well he has adapted this year.  He is understanding and speaking more and more in Turkish at school.

Here is Asher with his classmates and his teachers.  We feel like this school and his teachers are a direct answer to our prayers for Asher.  A few months ago he got moved to a smaller class and he is getting a lot more one on one help, which has really benefited him.  We are so thankful for such a positive experience for him.

Hospital Stay

Abram spent 4 days in the hospital due to a urinary tract infection that we think is related to one of his kidneys being slightly enlarged.  It was a very difficult 4 days for our family.  We are so thankful that the infection is gone now and for the care we received at the hospital here.  Thanks so much for all who prayed for us!  We so appreciated all the prayers.

Here is our little guy hooked up to his IV:

Thankful to be home as a family again and for this precious little boy!

Abram Reed Wessman

Our third son was born yesterday, January 2, at 5:15pm.  He was 7 lbs. 6 oz.  and 20.5 in. long.  We are so thankful for his safe arrival!  Abram's brothers are pretty excited to have him around.

40 weeks 4 days

The end is near.....I hope!  I can't be pregnant forever, right?  I was thinking a Christmas baby, but now it's looking more like a New Year's or later baby.  Looking forward to meeting this little one soon.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning started with a sick child.  

Asher did perk up a bit once we started opening presents.  

The big hit this year were costumes the boys got from their Aunt and Uncle.  

We had a quiet Christmas and Asher slept quite a bit of the day.  Urban played with all of Asher's toys and thoroughly enjoyed himself.  Despite sickness, we enjoyed being together as a family and celebrating Jesus' birthday.  

Christmas Party

We enjoyed celebrating Christmas Eve with our friends.  The kids put on a little play of the nativity story.  They were all really cute!  Urban didn't want to dress up.  He played the part of baby Jesus.  And Asher was Joseph, and didn't want to get out of his costume all night.

We're Ready!

Well, as ready as you can ever be for another child entering your family.  But as far as his room goes, it is now complete and I love it!   My mother in law made the quilt, bedskirt, and sent the material for bumper pads.  She did such a great job and I am so thankful for her and the time she spent making all of this.  We are so blessed!  I am just shy of 39 weeks now and looking forward to meeting this new little guy soon!

Snow Day

We declared it a snow day today and everyone stayed home.  We got a lot of snow and thought it best to stay off the roads.  The boys went outside to play this morning.  Asher had a lot of fun.  Urban had a few minutes of fun, which was captured in this picture, and then he was ready to be done.

It is nice to see usually a dusty, dry city covered in a white blanket of snow!

Bunk Beds

The boys got bunk beds.  Asher could not be more excited!  Urban was a bit more hesitant about his new bed.  The boys (Reed included) enjoyed playing on the top quite a bit of the afternoon.

The boys made a little fort on the bottom bunk so there was blankets covering all the openings.  They watched "The Grinch Stole Christmas" in their fort before bedtime this evening.  

Special Morning with Dad

This morning I had a special breakfast with the moms of Asher's school.  It was a fun morning for me, but I think the boys had a much better time with their daddy.  He won 'awesome dad' points with them today as they got to go to an indoor play place and eat at Burger King while they waited to pick me up.

Christmas Picture Attempt

  Hopefully in a few weeks there will be another little boy joining us in a picture, preferably before Christmas, but we will see!

Christmas Cookies

Asher helped me make Christmas cookies this weekend.  We enjoyed a few and froze a lot so they are ready for Christmas in a few weeks.

Thanksgiving

I haven't posted in a long time!  We have been busy and I guess I haven't taken very many pictures.  We had a nice Thanksgiving and it was a packed house this year.  We found a large turkey and the food was yummy.  Again, I didn't take any pictures during the day, which I was bummed about later, but Reed did get just a few on his phone.  So this is all I got!

Lots of kids this year!  Much to be thankful for!

Fall Party

We enjoyed a Fall Party today with the kids.  They had fun with face painting, decorating cookies, and watching Charlie Brown.

So we had a butterfly, two cats, Dorothy, and a tiger at our party today.  They were adorable!

Decorating cookies or in Urban's case, just eating....  :)

We all had a fun time!

More Birthday Fun

We had a birthday party this weekend with some of our local friends for Asher.  

Asher got a basketball hoop for his birthday.  One might wonder who this gift was really for....Asher or his daddy?  :)  Needless to say much fun has been had already by all the boys in our house.   Asher is quite serious about his playing too.  He has to change his clothes so that he is wearing his "basketball shorts and jersey".  

Reed being quite dramatic for the photo:  

 We had a fun weekend, but I am tired and all caked out.

Happy Birthday, Asher!

Asher is 4 years old!!  He had a fun day celebrating and loves everything Cars and Lightning McQueen, so we are having a Cars theme party.  He will have a party with friends next weekend.