After the egg retrieval I got updates, or "fert reports" daily (excluding Sunday). We went from 21 eggs to 19 that were mature... Of those 19, 10 fertilized normally and became embryos!! On Saturday Dr H called to tell me that of those 10, they were ALL growing well but EIGHT of them were "VERY good quality." Eight?! EIGHT!!!! That's fabulous and more than I was expecting to get such a high remark. Since we had so many that were in such great shape and there were no clear front runners, we were a go for a 5 day transfer! just what I wanted!!!
I got no update Sunday.
And Monday I got the call from Connie to set up the transfer time. I got all of the instructions and then asked about our embryos...
"So, how do they look today?"
"Well we don't get reports on day 4, because they were in a transitional stage so they can't be rated at that point... But as of yesterday they are all FABULOUS. Like, really REALLY great. You make some awesome embryos!!" Ahhh!!!! YEA!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!!
"Yeah, I try..."
Connie and I chatted a bit about how every thing that comes out of her mouth ends up coming true, so I told her to please talk more about great things for us! Ha!
Yesterday was the day of the 5 day transfer! I was so super excited!! I took it easy during the day and tried not to stress. Focusing on having the best possible environment for the embryo(s). Staying stress free is really important from this point on. It's better for the body anyway, but super important for this stage of my cycle....
Heading in to the day, we had gone back and forth on how many we wanted to transfer. One? Two? One??? Two??? Danny left the decision up to me, since it's my body that would be carrying them. I told him I wanted two. He said that's fine. So, I knew he was okay with two. But I wasn't going to make the FINAL decision until we were at the transfer and hearing exactly how those embryos were doing, I just had to know he really was okay with whatever I decided.
Danny and I drove down, eating on the way... and arrived with just a few minutes to spare. I checked in, noticing that the waiting room was completely empty. Connie came out and got us shortly after we arrived. She and I were hangin' crap on Danny as we walked in the back and it really cracked up another of my favorite ladies there. She peeked her head around the corner, waved, and wished us good luck.
We were taken back to the room where the actual egg retrieval was. It's a big sterile room, with so many machines that I wouldn't even begin to understand... And two relaxing beachy pictures on the wall.
Danny got set up in his chair, which he proceeded to WHEEL AROUND THE ENTIRE ROOM looking at anything and everything. Thank goodness he kept his hands to himself!
I got ready and Connie came in to check my bladder.
"So I don't want to steal Dr H's thunder... but... Okay yes I do. Your embryos are SO FANTASTIC!! They really couldn't be more perfect!! Seriously!!" Ohhhhh YEA!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you God!!!
"Really? You're not just saying that???"
"No. If they weren't like this I would just keep quiet and let Dr H let you know how they are. These are fabulous!" Eeeeeek!!! Go embies go!!!!!
She checked my bladder and it was full but hadn't expanded quite enough to tilt my uterus quite enough. She figured it would be expanded by the time the transfer would happen...
She also asked if I would be okay with an OB student coming in to observe the transfer... Why not?
A few minutes later Dr H came in to discuss our little embryos. He said four were very good, and that some others might be good enough tomorrow to freeze! He asked how many we wanted to transfer.
"Two, we want to transfer two."
"Alright. Now I'm going to give you some numbers. This is in NO WAY to persuade you or change your mind. But I have to give you these facts... With your age and the amount of embryos you have with high ratings, that makes you a Gold Standard Patient. So here are all the percentages for our Gold Standard Patients..." He went on to tell us the success rates with one vs two embryos transferred, the percentage of twins, etc. I'm not going to share them here, but they were CRAZY. But, ultimately, I went with my gut.
"Okay. Whoa. Okay, well I'm still okay with two."
"Alright. Here is a picture of the best two. This one is 4a___ _______" He's still talking. What's he saying? Their ratings? Look at these BEAUTIFUL blasts!! These are our embryos!! Our future babies!! They DO look perfect!! Oh I love them so much already!!
I clutched the picture, I didn't care if Danny wanted to hold it or get a better look. It was NOT going to leave my hand.
Dr H pushed around on my belly with the sonogram wand thing, seeing what Connie did with the bladder. And the student commented on my "pretty ovaries." Why, thank you nice student lady!!
Then the transfer began. My bladder still didn't expand enough, but with enough pushing (OUCH), they got the proper view.
"Okay, do you see the bright white on the screen?"
"Yeah, I see it."
"That's the catheter. You can see some movement there right now. This part that you see right now will stay right there. The rest of the catheter will be removed, given to the embryologist so he can load the embryos, and then brought back and put back in. That's when the embryos will be transferred into you." Wow!!!
"Oh, and you'll see the embryologist in here, obviously, for all of that. I'm not sure if you've met him?" Sure haven't... But hey, what difference does yet ANOTHER stranger make. He's the babies' first babysitter after all...
"We haven't met him..."
"We used to tell people that they might see a strange person come in during this, but I don't think they liked being called strange..." HA!! THAT is funny!!
Right on time, the embryologist came in. We all laughed, quietly, but didn't fill him in on the little joke. He was told to load the two best, and then he disappeared again. I didn't look again, I was so focused on the sono screen.
Before I knew it there was movement on the screen again! I clutched Danny's hand.
"The embryos are too small to be seen on this screen. But you WILL see air bubbles. There should be one before and one after the embryos. This will create a sort of flash on the screen so you'll see it happening." Oh WOW!!!
FLASH... Two air bubbles, with a small amount of space in between them... Right there!!!
"Okay, now Brad will take the catheter to be sure both embryos are out, sometimes they get stuck..." No way could one get stuck, that went too well!!
Dr H walked away to check with Brad.
Connie and the student were whispering...
"Did you see him nod? He never does that. I knew, when he did that, that this was perfect. He never shows any emotion!!"
Dr H came back.
"Okay they are both out of the catheter." He started pushing around on my belly with the sono again, printing some pictures. "That's great...." What? What's great?! He walked off again and Connie and the student started talking again...
"He NEVER says anything about transfers, during or after. He said this was great. He's a perfectionist so he's never happy enough with anything. This went BEYOND perfect, for him to be happy with it! And did you see the air bubbles? They are still close together, and just those two. A lot of times you won't see both, or there will end up being more because of the air bubbles messing up, sometimes they spread out. This is just perfect!" Perfect!! YES!!!!
Dr H came back and finished up and we discussed the pregnancy test date.
"You can test at home, but all that we ask is that if you get a negative, don't stop taking the medication. The home tests just aren't always reliable and we don't want to mess anything up."
"Okay."
"Some couples say they won't test, but we want you to know it's okay to." Ha...
"Well we've already bought some..."
Everyone laughed.
"Okay, well good luck!"
I had to lay for 10 more minutes on the bed, and during this Connie went through all the rules for after the transfer.
"Lots of rest. NO cooking or housework" **points at Danny** "Have someone else do all that. Then after the two days are up, continue to take it easy. No working out. Nothing strenuous." Not. A. Problem.
"Alrighty."
"And, most importantly. If you test at home... YOU BETTER CALL ME OR EMAIL ME!! I want to know asap!!! Don't leave me in the dark here!" Awww, I LOVE HER!!!!
"I will be sure to let you know!"
Connie hugged me, and we had 5 more minutes to lay on the bed and relax...
I couldn't decide if we should tell everyone that we transferred two. We haven't had a lot of privacy through all this, which is fine considering it's thanks to all of YOU that we are even in this position! But I wanted to keep some things between the two of us. I did want our families to know though, so I sent a picture of our embie picture to our moms. They are their future grandbabies after all.
We ended up posting a picture of the embryos last night on Facebook, telling everyone that we transferred two.
We are going to test early, at home. But we won't be sharing those results. We don't know WHEN exactly we will be taking that test. And we would like to keep the results between just the two of us for a bit, just like other couples get to NORMALLY. The blood test IS on a specific day. However, the pregnancy isn't considered official until there are multiple blood tests with the levels doubling appropriately... And really even then it's not OFFICIAL OFFICIAL until there's a heartbeat (or two?).... We don't know when we'll be sharing any results. But please, PLEASE understand our want for a bit of normalcy through all of this. We will keep you all updated as soon as it's safe! Or maybe even before then, we don't know. We want to be the ones to make that decision though.
Now.... Do you want to see our future babies?? I hope they're snuggling comfortably in RIGHT NOW!!!! <3 <3
