200th post

Well today was a big day for us! There are now 3 embryos inside me!!! We were at the hospital for 3 hours. I had gotten an hour long masssage before hand, and I am very glad I did that as I felt physically very relaxed. The RE gave us the GOOD news that all seven embyros had continued to develop. YAHOO! He said three were "very good" and four were "moderate." I asked him how many cells the "very good" ones were, and he said there are many factors that determine quality (I know they also look at fragmentation, if the cells are about equal in size, etc.). He said if I was 32 years old he'd only allow us to transfer back two since we had some "very good" quality embryos. He said if I was 37 he'd encourage transferring three. He said at my age (35) we could go either way (2 or 3). He said the pregnancy rate would go up some if we transferred three back, but obviously so would the risk of having triplets. We said we wanted to transfer back three, and he said how about we compromise and transfer two of the very good ones plus one of the "moderate" quality ones. We are hoping the one "very good" one and the three "moderate" ones that we didn't transfer will make it until Monday and be able to be frozen for a future transfer.

The transfer was MUCH less painful than the mock transfer. It lasted about 15 minutes so it wasn't SUPER comfortable (since the speculum was in that whole time), but it wasn't painful. I would only call it "uncomfortable" and that was mainly because another doctor was doing an abdominal ultrasound and the same time so that Dr. Awad would be SURE to put our embyros back in my uterus. My bladder was SO full (the doctor even made a comment after seeing my bladder on the ultrasound) so it was uncomfortable to have him (lightly - he was very sensitive to my discomfort) pressing on my abdomen for 15 minutes. Then I had to lie there TEN more minutes before I could empty my bladder which was VERY hard. But after I emptied my bladder I felt 100% fine. When they inserted the embryos they showed us on the ultrasound so we could watch their journey. Well the embyros themselves are way too small to see, but we could see the fluid they were in. The embryologist had a great sense of humor. When she first carried them into the room she said something like "I've been telling them stories to keep them company" and when she handed them to the RE she said "Your embyros asked me to tell you hi." LOL! I really liked her. I could tell she was treating these as our little babies by the way she talked about them.

So I have extra cargo on board right now. For at least a few days I will be carrying triplets!!! I am lying on the couch (the joys of a laptop computer!) and I plan to stay parked here for 48 hours except for when I need to use the bathroom. I am also happy to say my PIO shot went just fine last night. I hope they continue to go that easily and with very little pain. Paul is becoming quite a good nurse!

I am very, very thankful to the Lord that our embryos all made it to today and three are "very good." The lady in the bed next to me (she also had her retrieval the morning I did) didn't get as good of a report. She is 33 (just a curtain between us so we could hear everything Dr. Awad said to her just like I am sure she could hear everything he said to us). He told her normally at her age he only allows 2 to be transferred, but all of her embyros are "poor" quality so he suggested transferring 3. He did try to encourage her she could still become pregnant - that the fact the embyros kept growing for 3 days was a positive sign and that sometimes embryos do better in the uterus than the lab, but I could tell she was very upset. Of course who knows - maybe she'll get pg and I won't, but hearing her report reminded me again of how grateful I am that as of today we had 3 "very good" and 4 "moderate." Anyhow, I would still covet your prayers for our 7 embryos. I am praying that the 3 inside me will implant and continue to grow and develop, and I am praying that the four still in the lab will continue to grow until Monday so that they can be frozen for a future transfer. We will find out Monday or Tuesday how many were frozen.

Anyhow thank you for all your prayers. I am very encouraged that we were able to transfer 3 embryos this morning! The doctor doing the ultrasound printed a picture showing the fluid with the embryos going in my uterus (of course the majority of the photo just shows my very full bladder, LOL). I am treasuring this photo. I pray in the future I'll be treasuring photos in which a baby (not my bladder) is the main thing to be seen on the ultrasound screen!