The embryos are home!

It's been a rough waiting game over the past few days.  We learned yesterday by the embryologist calling that 8 eggs were mature and were fertilized with ICSI.  The other 3 eggs were left to mature on their own.  Only 1 did mature, but it didn't fertilize.  7 of the fertilized embryos started dividing like they should.  He told us to expect a call in the morning with more updates on their progress.

Dr. Hammoud called us just after 8:00 am and gave us a big decision to make.  He said that 3 of the 7 embryos are looking really good.  They have divided to 6 and 7 cells and are rated as a 2 (1 being the best, but is very rare).  2 of them are medium quality (4 cells with a 2 rating) and the other 2 are lower quality (3 cells with a 3 rating).  He said that we had the choice to do the transfer today or wait until Day 5, but we risk losing some or even all of them.  There are many differing opinions about Day 3 vs Day 5 transfers.  Some say that the uterus is the most natural state and they will do as well there as they would in the petri dish.  Others say that if the embryos don't make it to Day 5, they weren't good enough quality to transfer anyway.  There is definitely a slighly better chance of pregnancy for a Day 5 transfer (5-10%). 

Dr. Hammoud and Dr. Gibson met and they both suggested a transfer today of the 2 best (both 7 cells).  Then we can still watch the other 5 and we'll know more about how they are behaving and hopefully have some to freeze.  We talked about the pros and cons of both and felt good about transferring today, so we headed up there.  The doctor answered any other questions we had and talked about the risks (miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, infection, etc.).  We received pictures of the embryos and he gave me 2 valium pills.

It is such an amazing procedure!  The doctor inserted a guiding catheter directly to 1 cm from the top of the uterus.  Then we watched on a screen as the embryologist showed my name and sucked up the embryos in a media which is similar to the uterine environment.  He walked directly into the room, the catheter was emptied into my uterus and then the catheter was checked under the microscope to make sure the embryos were not longer there.  I then slept for about a 1/2 hour and left in a wheelchair.

I called my acupuncturist after leaving and he had availability at 2 pm, so while we were waiting, Clay picked up lunch and we ate a little picnic at the park.  It was such a beautiful day today!  70 degrees and barely a cloud in the sky!  A perfect day for 2 little embryos to settle into their loving, nurturung home for the next 9 months!