I know God heard all your prayers, because I felt them! I can’t thank you enough for your kind words, messages, scriptures and love you have sent our way.

Today marks Day 8 since the retrieval and Day 3 since the transfer. Both went great… a complete rundown – we had 10 eggs retrieved, 7 eggs fertilized, 2 embryos frozen and one embryo transferred.

The Retrieval
We scheduled our retrieval for Thursday, January 15.  Before we got to that point, here are the shots I had been taking leading up to the retrieval point …
1/3 – 1/8: Gonal F 300iu
1/8 – 1/12: Gonal F 300iu + Cetrotide
1/13: Cetrotide + Ovidrel
I did not produce as many follicles as I would’ve hoped, probably because of my low AMH levels. Generally, the retrieval is canceled if the patient doesn’t produce at least 5-15 follicles and the doctor was only counting 5-6 follicles for me on the ultrasounds, which is why our retrieval was about three days past our initial plan.. to give me more time to grow the existing follicles. Apparently God and the doctor know what they’re doing because we were very pleased to have retrieved 10 eggs! Most, well, maybe not most, but it’s not uncommon for women to have 20-30+ eggs retrieved.

As for as the retrieval process… it was a relief!!! I was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable because of my swollen ovaries, but it wasn’t bad at all.. not like I was carrying around grapefruits like I was anticipating to feel. But it was a relief because the procedure itself was painless, simple and easy. Of course a Valium and a little bit of pain meds helped with that, but even the next couple days weren’t awful. I was attached to a heating pad (or a little sticky heated patch when I went to work) but other than that, I was a happy girl. Friday through Sunday, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I looked at myself in the mirror (and John laughed too) because I was SO BLOATED, I could’ve been mistaken for a 9 month pregnant lady! Apparently your ovaries fill up with fluids after the retrieval which causes that. Thankfully, that all went down and now I’m just back to being fat. 😉

The nurses would call me with embryos reports to tell me how they were doing and growing in the meantime. We were originally scheduled for a Day 3 transfer (Sunday). This is a little odd to try to explain because there are a million moving parts and opinions that contribute to this, but I’ll try…

A Day 3 transfer has certain benefits that are undeniable. One is that an embryo will grow best in it’s natural environment, which would naturally be the uterus. However, knowing which embryos to transfer on Day 3 would be a gamble since it’s survival of the fittest and only time determines how certain embryos will grow and divide. On Sunday, the day of our initial Day 3 transfer, our embryo report said there were 4 embryos with 8-10 cells and 3 embryos with ~5 cells and the rest were still going strong as well. However, if we transferred one of the 4 biggest embryos at that time, the chances of pregnancy are slim, especially since only 3 total made past Day 5.

So, by the Day 5 transfer, we could make a more educated “guess” as to which embryos are the strongest, healthiest options for us to transfer since the embryos had gone through the blastocyst stage. Another benefit of the Day 5 Blast is a lower risk of multiple pregnancies. If we had thrown in (sorry, I get casual with my vocabulary when discussing this sometimes) transferred two embryos on Day 3 and happened to have chosen the perfect two, we would have a higher chance of being blessed with twins. However, with the Day 5 transfer, we knew we had one embryo that was strong and powerful and perfect, so we only transferred that one, which significantly decreases the chances of twins since this would require the embryo to split, instead of just implanting two. Am I doing a terrible job of explaining this because I feel like my words are jello and lack substance here? Plus, I’d used to explaining this in person and for some reason, I feel like people understand it (or are better fakers in person) when I use my hands and arms to explain…

Before my brain shuts down and no one reads about the transfer, I’m going to start a new post and explain the transfer, because that is FULL OF EDUCATION also!! Betcha didn’t know you signed up for a science class, didja?

Let me know if you have any questions because I’d love to answer them, whether it’s general infertility or retrieval specific!