Nestling In

On Sunday morning at 9:00am my phone suddenly rang. It was Loreen calling to tell me to take the Valium and come to the office by 9:45 to do the egg transfer. Talk about catching us off guard and setting the rush of adrenaline. For some crazy reason, I had forgotten to pick up the Valium from the drug store. So in a matter of minutes, we needed to get dressed, stuff a few pillows in a garbage bag and rush to the drug store to pick up the Valium. Don't you notice when you're in a rush, everyone seems to move like slugs? Needless to say, we managed to pick up the Valium and make it to the dr's office by 9:45.

After waiting in one of the exam rooms for a few minutes, the dr. came in to discuss the status of our embryos and to make the final decision on how many embryos to put in. First, he showed us a picture of 4 embryos. He explained that these were the best 4 embryos of the 11 eggs that fertilized. He also showed us a chart that documented the progress of all of the fertilized eggs. He said that the other 7 were developing slowly which is not good. He explained that it could be due to poor eggs or poor sperm but the only way to tell is if they were to do testing on it. Out of the 4, 2 were 8 cell and 2 were 6 cell. The 2 8-cell embryos looked the strongest, one of the 6-cell embryos were average and the other one had some fragmentation which was not good. We talked about putting in three embryos and freezing one, but he said we should go for the best possible chance now rather than banking on freezing any embryos because our chance of pregnancy at this point is 40%. The only stipulation he had about putting in more than 2 embryos is that we have to be okay with the possibility of doing a reduction if more than 2 embryos take. Since we just wanted the best possible chance now and considering this will probably be the only IVF we will ever do, we decided to take the risk and put in all four. We signed the authorization and I was taken into the ultrasound room to begin the transfer.
It was amazing to watch our little ones flow into my uterus one by one. The only way we were able to see them was by the visible air bubble that was place between them. The dr. explained that this is how they mark them and make sure of their placement in my uterus. He also explained that he placed them to the far left of my uterus because that was the most blood enriched area. After lying with my legs resting on pillows for about 20-30 minutes, I was released to go home.

Since Sunday afternoon, I have been ordered to bed rest. The only time I was able to get up was to use the bathroom or eat. This is why my back is killing me! Although my back is in pain, I'm praying it is all worth it and the kids are nestling in, getting comfortable, and growing healthy and strong.

As for symptoms or side effects, there aren't many to report. I've been having many a sleepless night since right before the egg retrieval because I've been getting up at least 6 times throughout the night to use the bathroom. I've been really tired, experiencing mild cramps from time to time, and breast tenderness. I just finished the Doxycycline last night, so now I'm only taking 16mg of Medrol, 1 cc of Progesterone in oil, 81mg of baby aspirin, and applying 2 estrogen patches every other day. My betas are scheduled for next week Tuesday and then again on Thursday. I should find out on Thursday by 2:00pm if we will finally be parents. We can't wait...