Embryo Transfer

Things have continued to go well for us through the final phase of this process. Of the 16 eggs that were retrieved last Tuesday, 14 were mature. 10 fertilized and became embryos.

Traditionally, embryo transfer would occur on day 3, which would have been Friday. The nurse called Thursday and scheduled our Friday appointment and gave us the news that there was a possibility of waiting until Sunday for blastocyst transfer. This was unbelievable news for us. In certain cases, if there are many high quality embryos they will wait until day 5 when the embryos have developed into blastocysts. This helps them to see if one or two of them are going to develop better than the others. It's encouraging to know that pregnancy rates are much higher with blastocyst transfer (mostly because the very best embryos are chosen and transferred).

Friday morning the doctor called. I was surprised, because normally we only get calls from the nurses. The doctor was so excited to let us know that all our embryos were doing so well and that we'd wait for Sunday for blastocyst transfer. He discussed the pros and cons of a single or double blastocyst transfer. Because success rates are higher with blastocyst transfer often it's either all or nothing in terms of pregnancy. Either everything transferred will implant and grow, or nothing will. In our case the trouble is that the statistics don't really work for us. He said that since we had two failures, that maybe transferring two would be best. He ended telling us that either answer was the right answer and that he was just so pleased with how strong our embryos looked.

We wrestled with the one or two question Friday and Saturday. We talked about the advantages of doing one, with the risks of worrying that we'd have none. We talked about doing two because we definitely didn't want to repeat the process. We talked about a lot of things, and eventually we decided that we'd transfer one, freeze the remaining blastocysts and then try two if one didn't work.

Sunday morning we went to the office. I had acupuncture first, and then chugged a ton of water. The doctor came in to talk to us about our embryos. All of them, but one, were still doing well and growing. The doctor went through a lot of terms I didn't know about embryo development, but basically what I got was this... In the beginning when embryos are only 4-8 cells, the cell mass is clearly visible. As they develop a "skin" develops around the cells and fluid develops in that skin. At that point the cell mass is impossible to see clearly, but some stages in development are easy to see. The cell mass eventually compacts and there are a bunch of names for different stuff that happens, but when the cell mass gets to be right around 64 cells, it becomes clear again and is at the blastocyst stage. All of our embryos still had their "skin" on but two of them were in the early blastocyst stage, while the others were not quite so far along. These were the two clear frontrunners. The doctor informed us that if our two strongest embryos were a bit farther along (all the way to the blastocyst stage and easy to see into) that they would recommend transfer of one, but because they were only early blastocysts, they could not effectively grade the embryos. They only recommend single transfer for the very highest grade embryos, so they recommended that we transfer two. We laughed because we'd had this all planned out and then of course, our plans were not what we were doing. It's just another example of how in our family planning NOTHING ever goes the way we planned it. ;o)

After the transfer, I went for more acupuncture and we went home. I'm now confined to my bed for 48 hours, and then very light activity for the rest of the week. I can't pick up L until Sunday. I do not know how that is going to work out, but I'm just so thankful that my mom is here to help. I know that L is going to be fine no matter what, but I already miss our daily routine.

Now we wait... Pregnancy test will be on the 20th in the doctor's office. We're hoping for the best! The office will call us on Wednesday to let us know if the other embryos continued to develop, or if they've ceased. Those that reach the blastocyst stage will be frozen, and since they don't have to transfer them, they have all the time they need to "grow up."

Thanks for everyone's prayers and support. I know more than any other time that God is with us through this process and always has been since the beginning. I know that when I think about the poor egg quality diagnosis that we had that was clearly wrong that I'm honestly thankful for it. Our family is just the way that it's supposed to be. How can I argue with that? Anyway... your prayers are all truly felt. We have so much peace however this works out.

OH... and I almost forgot. Statistically speaking many more boys are born from blastocyst transfer. We may end up with twin boys. Ha! Maybe we should all say a prayer for that!

Weekly update coming... I'm chained to my bed and the camera is downstairs...