Hunger Cry...

Well, it was another day of crying. Matthew is so hungry that nothing will calm him down. We can only give him drops of sugar water which only helps for a minute or two. It is so hard to see our baby crying when there is nothing we can do to help. The crying makes his heart rate go up and down and his blood pressure go out of control.

Craig and I noticed that his incision was more swollen this evening and that his right leg was swelling and turning red. We mentioned it to his nurse but she wasn't sure what to do about it. Luckily, his surgeon was called in for another child so Craig grabbed him and asked him to look at Matthew. He was concerned with the leg and said that it is due to the size of his central line in his leg and upped his blood thinner to prevent any blood clots. They may remove the central line tomorrow and possibly the arterial line, as the cardiologist doesn't want it in there much longer due to the risk of blood clots. They are still waiting for the cultures on his chest to see if the antibiotics they are giving him will be effective against this strand of bacteria.

The surgeon told Craig that since Matthew hasn't had any bowl movements in the past 24 hours he probably is no longer bleeding from his intestines. If he was still bleeding the blood would act like a laxative in his body. They will repeat x-rays in the morning and if the intestines look clear they will try to feed him and see how his stomach handles it. There is growing speculation that he may not have NEC after all, but we won't be sure until the doctors make rounds in the morning.

A new development is that the high doses of antibiotics have killed most of the good bacteria in Matthew's body and he has now developed Thrush (a fungal infection) in his mouth. His nurses caught it early enough so it didn't get bad and probably isn't causing him any pain.

It was a long day for Craig and I as the crying is really breaking our hearts. Please pray for Matthew's discomfort and for our emotional state. We are hanging in there but barely. I know that we need to give things over to God and lean on Him more so that is our prayer for this evening.

We will update tomorrow after the doctors round and we have more answers.

Love, Craig & Amy