*Think Sticky Thoughts*

Ok, our little embryos are in! Here's the picture they gave me today of the ones we transferred:


Our potential future children!


The one on the right is a blastocyst and the other is an early blastocyst - both really good quality! He said each one had about 25% chance of implanting so we have like a 50% chance of getting pregnant with these little guys...

The update on all our embryos: we were down to 7 on Sunday. Today we had the 2 that we transferred (1 blastocyst, 1 early blastocyst), and now there are only 2 others that are still progressing but they are a little slow so he's not sure if they'll be good enough to freeze or not. He said they'd look at them again tomorrow and hopefully they'll have progressed a bit more and then they'd freeze them. I was really counting on having some frozen embryos to be able to do a frozen cycle if this one didn't work. There's no way we could afford another full cycle again for a long time... so hopefully they eggs are able to freeze so we have that as a back up plan! Or! Hopefully we just get pregnant and don't need them!

Our apt today was at 1:15. We decided this morning to go to the temple before our apt - it's convenient since it's just up the road from the fertility center. It was a peaceful way to spend the morning and help us keep things in perspective! I hadn't eaten much so after the temple we raced to Panda Express near by and ate our lunch in about 10 minutes flat before racing over to the fertility center.

While we were sitting in the waiting room Tonya, one of the nurses, comes up and asks, "How about some valium?!" It seemed funny at the time! They give you valium before the procedure to help you relax as well as relax your uterus.

We waited in the exam room and Dr. Foulk came in and showed us the pictures of our embryos and told us how the others were doing. The procedure is pretty simple and took about 10 minutes. They do an abdominal ultrasound while the dr inserts a catheter and uses that to put the embryos into the uterus. Then they check under a microscope to make sure both of the embryos were transferred from the catheter.

When they finished the dr didn't want me to move at all - I believe his words were, "be like a wet noodle" - as they pulled me up farther on the bed and I laid there for at least 30 minutes. Rob and I were both so tired and the lights were still out so be basically snoozed the whole time... I couldn't go to bed last night til 1 am and then Robby woke up randomly at 5 and kept coming in! So 4 hours of sleep... didn't feel great... when they came back in and told us I could get up, go to the bathroom, and go home I was nervous to get up! I felt like, "are you sure they're not gonna come back out??"

We came home and now I've just been making the most of my "Princess Days" as they said. The nurse explained I don't necessarily have to be laying down the entire time but the point is we want all the blood flow to go to the uterus so I don't want to be moving around. So I can sit up, watch tv, read... Taba was able to come down today and took Robby and her kids out to the pool and then I took a much needed nap! Then my sweet primary ladies brought us dinner which was awesome. Rob came home and luckily Robby was ready for bed early (since he woke up at 5 am!) so it all went pretty smoothly today!

Rob has been very helpful tonight but I realize now how many times a day/night I get up to grab something or do something... he keeps making trips back and forth around the house for me, hopefully he doesn't get too tired of it too quickly! :)

Now that these little embryos are in there I just feel like the pressure's on a little bit... I feel like I'm fragile or something. I don't want to jostle them or do anything that's going to prevent them from implanting! We will have 2 blood tests and compare the HCG levels and we'll get the results on 7/8! Please let these 10 days go by fast!

I just want to say THANK YOU to all of you guys for your comments, messages, texts and just all your support!!! It means so much to us to know we have so many people rooting for us! So, thanks. :)

Tuesday it is...

So we went in today and talked to Dr. Foulk and discussed the health of the eggs and he said we are going to wait until Tuesday. This is good because it will give the embryos more time to develop but I have to say part of me was disappointed because I'd tried to mentally prepare for it happening today.

A little about our embryos - we retrieved 25 eggs, 14 were mature, 10 of those fertilized. As of today 3 had stopped progressing so we are down to 7. Of those 7, 4 were in the "good" zone (6, 7, or 8 cells) and 3 were still developing so by Tuesday we should have 2 that are really good to implant and hopefully 2 others at least to freeze.

Here are some of our little embryos!

So it is good news - we definitely want the best embryos possible! I'm just feeling kind of emotional about the whole thing! 

It isn't helping that my body is still hurting from the retrieval, just crampy in the front and the back and now these Progesterone in Oil shots are killing my bum! Oh my goodness! Maeris watched Robby this morning while we went to the fertility center and when I came back he told her, "My mom has to do diant (giant) shots in her bum!" These needles are way bigger than the tummy shots and the oil makes a huge welt and bruise... ugh! It's getting old fast - really if you can't be comfortable sitting how can you be comfortable?? My friend who has done IVF twice gave me some tips for these shots - ice the area first, lean on one leg so the muscle isn't contracted, do squats and rub the area after... I was just doing a little more research on a fertility forum and tomorrow I'll try using a heating pad afterward too... if I'm pregnant I'll have to do these shots till I'm 9 weeks - so hopefully I'll just have to get used to it. :) And I'm grateful for Rob's help with these! He didn't have to do any of the other shots but I just can't do these ones by myself and I'm grateful he's doing it with me every morning!

Egg transfer tomorrow??

 I have to say I had no idea the egg retrieval would be a big deal physically - I mean, yes, I was going under anesthesia and they were going to poke my ovaries with needles... but it seemed like they made a big deal about the egg transfer and I'd need to rest for 48 hours after that... anyway, my point is - my body is still hurting! I spent all Thursday with my heating pad on me and that helped but now I see why when we were leaving the nurse said, "So, just extra strength tylenol, if you need something stronger give us a call." I was like, why would I need that? OHHHHHH. I get it now. I'm surviving on just tylenol and still using my heating pad. I'm sure it'll get better soon.

Yesterday afternoon I called to check on my eggs and got what I felt was a little surprising of an update - so, they retrieved 25 eggs. Out of the 25 eggs only 14 were mature. They did ICSI on those 14 eggs (that means they injected sperm into those 14 eggs) and of those 10 actually fertilized. So, we went from 25 to 10 pretty quickly. Still good it just sounded not as great to me. She said they'd have another update for me tomorrow (Saturday) but didn't have any more information on if the transfer would be Sunday or Tuesday.

Today I called them at around 4 to see if they could tell me how my eggs were doing. (I feel a bit like a mother hen!) I left a message for the lab. I got a call from Tonya, ones of the nurses, and she asked us to come in tomorrow (Sunday) at 10:30 am prepared to do the egg transfer but that we would sit down and talk with Dr. Foulk and there's a chance we'll decide to wait but that we probably would do it tomorrow. Ok. I was kind of surprised because Dr. Foulk seemed so sure we would do the transfer on Tuesday but maybe our eggs are not doing so great so they want to do it sooner?

Later I got a call back from the woman in the lab and she was very nice and gave me an update on my eggs - she said 2 were 4 cell and looking great, high quality, and that there were a few that were a little fragmented but that they didn't worry unless it was 25% and it was only 10% (I'm just telling you what she said I did not really understand it!) and that there were 5 or so that were still 3 cell and had time to develop and so we'll see.... ok.... She was very nice and I appreciate her giving me the details even if I don't completely understand them.

Bottom line - we're going in tomorrow at 10:30 and we may or may not be transferring eggs. I feel anxious... like it'll be hard to go in tomorrow and then NOT do it but it might be the better thing so I'm trying to be prepared in case we do and be prepared in case we don't... all a very crazy mix of emotions.

Also the closer it's getting to putting them back in the more real this feels... the more I'm starting to feel myself really hoping that this works! And then it's just waiting to find out if it did or not. And I'm not exactly ready for the 48 hrs of bed rest, my house is kind of a mess and I'm sure I need to do laundry and should've gone grocery shopping today! Oh well! We'll survive. And it'd be nice if we did it tomorrow cause Rob would be home all day... but it's also maybe better if it's not tomorrow... back and forth...

We will just go in, see what Dr. Foulk says, and go from there. Trying to stay calm! :)