Raelynn Jean Peterman was born 12/17/2021 T 12:05PM. She was 5 lbs 6oz and 18 1/2 inch.

For those of you who don't know me, My name is Emily Boyd and I am Erin's twin sister. For now I will be updating everyone on Raelynn until Erin is ready to make updates on her own. 

Raelynn's journey began when Erin went to her 20 week anatomy scan. Up until this point everything with her pregnancy was normal and right on schedule. At her anatomy scan they noticed something wrong with her heart. The Right side of her heart was not forming like the left. From this devastating news came a lot of follow up appointments and tests. Erin began seeing a MFM specialist with OSU who then got her in contact with a Pediatric Cardiologist Team with Nationwide Children's Hospital. The First step was to do an echocardiogram to get a better look at Raelynn's heart. This confirmed what they suspected during the anatomy scan, Raelynn's Right Ventricle is smaller than the left. At this time she was diagnosed with Pulmonary Atresia. 

Pulmonary atresia is a birth defect (pronounced PULL-mun-airy ah-TREE-sha) of the heart where the valve that controls blood flow from the heart to the lungs doesn't form at all. In babies with this defect, blood has trouble flowing to the lungs to pick up oxygen for the body.

Now that they have the diagnosis, the plan was when Raelynn made her arrival Erin would deliver at OSU and the baby would be transported to Children's hospital right after she was born. Her team of doctors estimated she would need 3 procedures to get her heart working correctly (this is also based on her condition when she is actually born). The first procedure would be a catheter going in from one of her main arteries to place a stent in her heart to keep the PDA Valve open so that blood could flow through her heart. The second procedure would be when she is 3-6 months old and would be an open heart surgery to reroute the ventricles on her heart to flow to her lungs. The last one would be the same open heart surgery but when she is a little bit older, between 3-4 years old. The doctors hoped this would be everything that needed to be done, but also stressed that it could be possible that Raelynn would have to get a new heart when she is older. All this would be based on Raelynn's condition when she was born, so the only thing to do for the next 17 weeks would be to monitor her heart and await her arrival! 

Around 32 weeks Erin's team of doctors noticed that Raelynn was not growing like she should. They monitored her closely with scans every week but ended up deciding they would induce her at 37 weeks. The team of Doctors felt they could regulate and help Raelynn grow better if she were here. At Erin's 36 week appointment Raelynn was still breech so they decided they would do a C-section. 

On December 17th Raelynn Arrived!! She came out screaming and a fighter! About 2 hours after her arrival she was transported to Children's Hospital to be monitored. Dad, Mike, would go to Children's to be with his new baby girl, while I stayed with Erin at OSU so she could recover from her C-Section. Erin did get to hold her for the first time before she was transported. Raelynn's first day consisted of lots of tests and scans. She got an EKG, an echocardiogram, and an Xray. She was also on lots of medications including medicine to keep her PDA valve open because this normally closes hours after babies are born. The first few days they decided to keep her stable and comfortable so the team of Doctors could make a game plan based on the results of all her scans. 

December 20th Raelynn had her first procedure. They went through her carotid artery in her neck with a catheter and placed the stent in her PDA valve in her heart. Everything ended up going well and Raelynn stayed strong through the whole procedure. The next day Erin and Mike would hear some scary news. During the procedure the doctors could not find her coronary arteries, which is generally noticeable during this kind of procedure. Since they could not find them, they decided they would go back in with a catheter and place dye to see how the blood is flowing and check to see if the coronary arteries even developed or if they were  missed placed. The doctors wanted catheter surgery. 

On Dec. 22nd Erin and Mike got the devastating news that their precious little girl would need to have a heart transplant. After the second catheter surgery they noticed that the coronary arteries were there but they are misplaced and not in the correct spot. With this, her heart isn't pumping enough oxygen to her lungs and her coronary arteries that she does have could collapse on themselves at anytime. Raelynn's team of doctors feel the best plan of action is for her to get a new heart. Her doctors worked diligently to get Raelynn on the transplant list as soon as possible. By Friday, December 24th Raelynn was officially on the National Heart Transplant list. Due to her being high risk she was placed higher on the list. Her time frame is estimated to be anywhere between 3-6 months, maybe longer. So now we wait and keep Raelynn comfortable while we wait for her new heart. At this time all her other organs are working correctly and looking good! 

Erin, Mike and Raelynn will be staying at Nationwide Children's Hospital while they wait. The doctors are very hopeful that as they wait Raelynn will be able to do normal "baby stuff", but right now they are working to help regulate her medications and know what works best for her to make sure her heart isn't working too hard. Both Erin and Mike have been very blessed with the doctors, nurses and staff in general at Children's Hospital and OSU Medical Center. They have a lot of Faith that they are doing what is best for Raelynn and have kept them informed every step of the way. 

As of right now we are looking into ways to help support Erin, Mike and Raelynn through this journey. We do need to do a little more research on what we can do as far as donations, fundraising and things like that so I will keep you posted on that. They do have a Gift Card from Children's Hospital that can be used all over the hospital, the CVS across the street and Panera. More money can be added to that so if you would like more information on this let me know! 

Everyone please keep Raelynn, Erin and Mike in your prayers through this journey! We hope and Pray that Raelynn gets a new heart soon ♥️ 💜 💙 ❤️