On July 2nd, Morgan and Tristan went into the hospital with minor symptoms and a gut feeling that something was wrong with baby. While being monitored at the hospital, suddenly the baby’s heart rate was erratic and dangerously low so just 45 minutes later they welcomed a little boy, Raylan Jacob Peters, via emergency c-section 3 weeks early. Raylan was immediately separated from us due to concerns with his breathing. He remained separated from us for the entire stay in FSJ.

In the middle of the night on July 3rd, he was still struggling to pass the fluid from his lungs so Morgan and baby Raylan were flown to the PG NICU. Tristan followed by car and met them there. After being assessed by the team in PG they determined that he needed a higher level of care yet and once again Morgan and baby Raylan were flown to BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver while Tristan followed by car on July 5th.

Once arriving at BC Children’s Hospital, the team quickly determined that baby Raylan was struggling with far more than just the fluid in his lungs. He was experiencing frequent sub-clinical seizures and spent the first week here connected to an EEG and received numerous other tests while the neurology team trialed different medications in attempt to control the seizures. Some medications sedated him and led to him needing additional breathing support.

After multiple weeks in the NICU, the neurology team has determined that Raylan has a form of epilepsy. Currently, they do not know what caused the epilepsy since all of the tests/scans have come back ‘normal’.

Due to the frequency of seizures Raylan has experienced, the neurology team is very concerned that he will have severe developmental delays such as breathing and feeding on his own. They are unable to give us an estimated timeline on these delays or if they will be permanent complications and Raylan will remain in the NICU indefinitely.

This was incredibly scary for us to hear but in the past week he has started to make slight improvements and we are hopeful that our baby boy can come home relatively soon. Currently he is able to breathe on his own while he is awake but is relying on support when he is tired or sleeping. Until he is able to breathe independently, he will not be able to attempt feeding orally and will remain feeding through an OG tube.

As for any donations, Go Fund Me requires us to set a goal as much as we didn’t want to. We don’t want people to feel obligated to donate more than they were planning on just to help us reach that goal. Over the last month, Morgan and Tristan have utilized all of the supports possible through the hospital but those resources are limited and running out. We are still waitlisted for Ronald McDonald House and will be paying for a hotel going forward. We are incredibly grateful for anyone who makes donations as it will help keep our family together and stop Tristan from having to leave and go back to work again. Any donations will be used for helping pay for hotels and food. Along with covering our everyday bills back home (mortgage, car payment, caring for our pets etc)

Any amount no matter how big or how small will be so greatly appreciated and we would love to know who is donating to us so that we can thank everyone personally.