They Are Safely Home!

What a great morning we had.

I woke up and pushed Bob out of bed so that he could go to fitness bootcamp.  I got the license to be lazy and to lie in bed before the transfer.  When he was gone, I continued to lie in bed and started to pray to the Lord about our embryos.  I prayed that Eli would’ve turned into at least a morula if not a blastocyst.  I prayed that Clay would thaw very well.  Then I began to visualize my uterus to be a very welcoming, warm place for those embryos to burrow into snuggly.  Then I fell asleep again.

Before Bob left, he reminded me to remember to fill my bladder.  I totally forgot that I needed to do that!  This cycle has been interesting because I kept on forgetting things.  I almost forgot that we needed to do injections two times!  And now the bladder thing.  I don’t know.  My head just wasn’t there.

Dr. E didn’t update us until after 9am.  I vacillated between being nervous and being calm.  I had a good feeling that Eli had made it further but I just didn’t know for sure, of course.  The subject line of her email was “Beautiful Morula”.  This is what she wrote:

“The 4 cell grade 1 is a “very pretty morula” this morning per the lab director 🙂 Yay!  They are going to thaw the frozen for us for a noon transfer.  See you soon!!”

What a big relief!  I would take a morula any day over an embryo that stops growing.  The similarity between Clay and Eli is eerie.  Clay became a morula on day 4 and was still a morula on day 5.  Here is Eli, a “very pretty” morula on day 5.  I am thrilled that they have the same progression, which means that Eli might just become another blastocyst if we decided to let it grow until tomorrow, day 6.  

That email brought a little tear to my eyes.  No matter the outcome of this cycle, it’s so overwhelmingly emotional to get to this point for a person with diminished ovarian reserve to finally make one or two embryos and to be able to transfer them for a fighting chance of pregnancy and a take home baby.  My heart was filled with gratitude.

Then cued the next step: drinking lots of water.  Started at 10am, I downed at least 3 to 4 eight-oz glasses of water.  I was feeling fine until about 11am.  Five days ago, I was dying for a glass of water but was prohibited from having one.  Today, I was ordered to drink lots of water but not to pee.  The irony of life.

On the way there, all sorts of thoughts came to my head.  What if we get a flat tire?  How would we make sure that we got to the IVF center on time? Do we call my brother to come pick me up while Bob waits for help?  Do we hail a cab and abandon the car? My mind went wild.  Luckily, we got to the IVF center safely without incidents.  Bob was so proud that he got me there 10 minutes early.

We got called back to the transfer room.  At that point, we didn’t have news on how Clay thawed.  I was quite confident that it probably did well but again, there was no way of knowing.  I just knew that we had something to transfer.  Just didn’t know how many embryos.  I was told to undress from the waist down and wrap myself around with a warm blanket.  I was surprised that no one asked us to change into anything else.  I remember reading about other ladies’ experiences of their transfers and vaguely recalled that they had to change into something else.  

This was me waiting with my lucky socks on:

 

The nurse checked my bladder and said, Nope it’s too full; it’s making the uterus very tiny.  So off I went to the bathroom to let out some pee. She told me to count at the beats of the Jeopardy song for 12 counts.  I had to do this three times before they got a satisfactory amount of pee.  

Then in came Dr. E with two photographs of the embryos.  Clay thawed 100% beautifully without any fragmentations.  Eli was also without any fragmentations and accordingly to her, looked like it was on its way to be a blastocyst.  

Here is Clay:

 

Here is Eli:

 

Then it came the procedure.  Must be the Valium talking because I was so talkative and speaking nonstop.  It was a very cool procedure.  And it was so much better that Bob was by my side.  I recently read that the clinic that specializes in mini-IVF in SoCal doesn’t allow husbands to be in for the transfer… I’d be very disappointed if Bob wasn’t allowed to be there.  

I was introduced to a lab technician who emerged from a closed door.  She asked me for my name and how many embryos I was transferring.  After Dr. E placed the catheter inside me, the lab technician disappeared for one minute to retrieve the embryos.  Dr. E said to Bob, “This is a good time to take a video.”  Bob was like… “Uh??”  I turned my head and said, “Hey let me do it!  Give me my phone.”  So I held my phone up to the screen closest to me and followed my doctor’s instruction to start pressing record when the door opened.  The lab technician came back with the catheter with our embryos and we watched the catheter move into the uterus.  It’s truly a very cool procedure.

I remember watching Dr. E on TV on one of the local morning news station, talking about IVF, IUI, and assisted reproductive technology in general.  That was when Bob and I were dating.  When we pulled into the parking lot, Bob said, I can’t believe that we’re doing a transfer today after watching Dr. E on TV a few years ago.

I can’t believe it either.  

I lay there for a couple more minutes.  Dr. E chatted with us and told us what to do next.  I am to rest.  Think lying on a beach on a beach chair.  Bob is to wait on me and get me whatever I want and need. Whatever I need, if he can do it, he’ll do it.  So other than peeing and showering, he is going to take care of me. I would say it sounds wonderful!

Beta test is eight days from now.  It seems like beta day varies greatly among REs.  I’ve seen from 12 days to 17 days.  I will have to schedule an appointment early in the morning before work.

It feels good to be finally at this step.  I know that it is no guarantee.  But this definitely buys us a fighting chance of getting pregnant.  If I don’t get pregnant, I still have the hope that we can make embryos and it can happen.  It may  just take a little while.  We have had so many people praying for us and rooting for us that we’re feeling so so blessed.  Praise the Lord that He has been watching us every single step of the way.  I am going to enjoy the next eight days as this is the most “pregnant” I have gotten in my life.  We are one step closer to our goal of having a take home baby by end of this year.  I hope that this is God’s plan for us.