Retrieval and Fertilization All-in-One

In January when we started thinking about this cycle, June seemed so FAR away.  But, here I am this morning, so bloated that my clothes don't fit and I'm wearing maternity underwear. My egg retrieval was yesterday. As usual, Dr. Z had to practically climb inside to get to my right ovary. I'll never understand why it likes to hide like it does.  But he did what he had to do, and he got them out. 

He got 10 eggs.

I was initially disappointed. My estrogen was SO high for me and everything has been looking so good. I was really hoping for more than that. But then I snapped out of it and realized that more eggs wouldn't matter. My hope was that the eggs we had would be MUCH better quality than the ones we've had in the past.

And I got my answer.

This morning Fran called. Early, thankfully, and with amazing news.

Of the 10 eggs, 8 were mature and fertilized with ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection). And as of this morning, we have SEVEN embryos growing well.

A 70% fertilization rate. OMG. 

So, what does this mean? Well this morning, we have seven day 1 embryos. We hope by day 3 they are 8 cells with minimal fragmentation and then MAYBE, just MAYBE, if quite a few of them keep on truckin'... we would be pushed to a day 5 transfer to see which ones make it to blast and then transfer two of those. 

You can see the difference between a day 3 and a day 5 embryo.
On day 5 it is called a blastocyst and it's getting ready to hatch.

Fran will call me back tomorrow and let me know what time to be there on saturday for my day 3 transfer. She'll also give me a brief update on how Scott (the awesome embryologist) says our embryos are doing.

Then, on Saturday morning, unless we get a phone call, we'll go in for our 3 day transfer, like both of our cycles before this.

Smudge and her Twin. We think Smudge is the embryo on the left.
In this picture (on day 3), that embryo was ahead in growth and was a compacted Morula,
on it's way to becoming a blastocyst.

stages of embryo growth

However, if on Saturday we get a call in the morning, we will know that we're pushed back for a 5 day transfer and will go in on Monday morning.

OMG. I'm still in shock. Go go gadget ovaries. You did awesome.

Stay tuned.