Incubating

Well, I am officially a lady in waiting...no not that kind of waiting! The infamous 2 weeks of waiting to find out if all of this has led to a pot of gold (or 2) at the end of the IVF rainbow! I had my embryo transfer on Friday, March 7th & it went well. Piece of cake really, no worse than a pap smear. All 8 embryos survived to transfer day & we had 2 great looking 8 cell embabies that they transferred.

I asked them embryologist for a photo & she obliged and I am so touched by this photo. Who would ever think that 8 little circles (well 16 in this case 8 on each) could inspire so much awe and hope in a person?The photo is my visual proof that there is life trying to take hold inside of me. It really moves me. I kept it at my heart during transfer & by my bedside at night. So with out further ado, here they are!

Sean says the one on the left is our future NHL star. Who can deny those perfect little cells resemble hockey pucks?! That was his request of the embryologist - to choose the hockey players- perhaps she did!

Here's the update on the other 6 embryos - 3 looked good on transfer day -6, 7 & 8 cells so they froze them into little snowbabies that day. The other 3 were slackers so they let them wait it out in the lab until today. Sadly, they were discarded. Survival of the fittest I guess, but I am a little sad...

I originally was told our Beta would be on St. Patty's Day, but due to my uncooperative E2 levels, it seems it will be delayed. My E2 has dropped more than 50% since retrieval day, so I need to take HCG booster shots every three days. This is fun on so many levels. First off, because it is the same hormone your body produces during pregnancy, testing too early could result in a false positive. So, instead of a 10 day wait, I am luck enough to have a 17 day wait. Beta moved to my mother-in-law's b-day - Monday, March 24th! 13 days & counting! The second reason these booster shots are such fun is that they knock me on my butt. About 24 hours after the 1st one, I wanted to cry my eyes out, but I knew it would hurt too much. It was the worst pain I have had throughout this whole cycle. I had a stitch in my side, my ovaries were the size of basketballs & I felt like I had done 10,000 sit-ups.

I was a little scared so I called the nurse and she said it was pretty normal as the HCG was exacerbating the rest of my symptoms. Extra strength Tylenol, Gatorade & some protein did the trick & I was feeling much better. I had another booster last night & although it doesn't seem to be nearly as bad this time, I don't feel as good as I did yesterday. Did I mention I look 6 months pregnant??? The bloating is OUT OF CONTROL!!! I have never seen anything like it!

I have decided to go with Jill's mantra, "pregnant until proven otherwise". In the mean time, we are praying for implantation - that should be occurring as I type according to my calculations!

Come on embabies, snuggle down, you've got a long nine months of growing ahead of you!