The day we had been waiting for finally arrived! Tuesday, January 20, 2015 … the day our sweet little angel embaby was transferred into my uterus. Did I really just say that in baby talk? Guilty.

We drove to Cincinnati for our 11:30am transfer appointment. I didn’t sleep the night before out of pure excitement and even though I had no idea what to expect, I wasn’t anxious at all. I was so ready and all the nurses, who are basically our best friends these days, all greeted us with their usual smiles and joy. One of our favorite nurses even said, “Girl! I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever!!” and it was true… we hadn’t been in the office all the way from Thursday until Tuesday, the longest break from the doctors office we’ve had in months!

I got changed into a super hot outfit and John even got to wear accessories on his head and feet which felt nice to include him on the goofiness that is infertility.

We walked into the “operating room” (in quotes because it was the room across the hall and looks more like a torture chamber than an operating room with a cubby hole in the left corner that a random man is waiting in to hand over your embryos to the doctor while we stare bug-eyed at the ultrasound screen even though it’s blank) and John took his seat on a rolling stool while I threw my legs over the stirrups as I had been conditioned to do. By the point of transfer time in the infertility journey, your mind goes like this: 1. walk into a room. 2. see stirrups. 3. put your legs up and scootch down. It doesn’t matter if you’re the patient or not, you can’t help it.

The doctor and nurse brought over the paperwork with the measurements of our sweet embabies and showed us the stats of the one we would transfer and the two we would freeze for any recent transfers. The remaining four embryos would stay in the lab and continue to be watched, but as of Day 5, it was evident they would not be viable past Day 6. John and I nodded, without saying a word, and watched as the cubby hole man handed over our embryo to the doctor. The nurse put the ultrasound thingy on my belly so we could watch the doctor as he transferred the embryo from the dish, through a catheter, and into it’s new home between the thick walls of my uterus. And that, my friends, was that. I stayed put for about 10 minutes and then John and I headed home. I went back to work for the afternoon and have been back to the daily grind of life in the meantime while we patiently wait until we’re allowed to get the blood work to confirm if our dreams are coming true. We’ve decided to stay a little hush hush about the actual day we can find out, simply for our own reasons so we can handle the results accordingly to ourselves depending on which way they go.

I’ve felt great. I began progesterone injections the same day as the retrieval so my body began to mimic pregnancy to create a welcoming and nurturing environment for the embryo. Since beginning these injections, I have already been feeling several pregnancy symptoms (even before the transfer) like the incredibly sore boobs, increased sense of smell and one I wasn’t aware of — EXTREMELY dry eyes, I’m talkin’ dry to the point that I went to sleep around 7pm a few nights ago simply because they hurt so bad that I just decided to shut them! They burn, water, itch and get red. It’s very strange.

Since I try to never leave you without some education, here’s the lesson… the embryo we transferred was a 4AA.  Blastocysts are “graded” on their quality using three different categories – each represented by the number or letters, i.e. 4AA. The number (4) is the expansion grade of the development is the number, the inner cell mass quality (A) is listed second, and the trophectoderm grade (A) listed third. So our blastocyst quality grade of 4AA means that the blastocyst is expanded, has many tightly packed cells in the inner cell mass, and has a trophectoderm with many cells, forming a cohesive layer. To give you something to base this on, embryos can range from 1CC (yikes, not good) to 6AA… so we are very hopeful that our 4AA will be successful.

What’s that you ask? Oh, you say you’re more of a visual person and wish you could see our embabies very first photo shoot? You’re in luck… here’s the very first picture, taken exactly 12 minutes before the transfer. I’d be lying if I said John and I didn’t both kiss the picture because we’re already in love.

Implant, baby, impant. Grow, baby, grow.