And Now We Wait. (Updated)

I love our embryologist! A lot. He remembered that last time I asked him to take pictures of the eggs before they were fertilized. This time, he took it even farther and took a series of pictures for us to have that documented the later half of our cycle.

Allow me to share:

This is what eggs look like fresh from the ovary. They are encased in cumulus cells. Cool, huh?


Then we have the counted, mature eggs. One polar body and one pro nuclei.


He even took a picture of them after they were fertilized. Two polar bodies, two pro nuclei.


A sample of what they looked like on day-3 (Sorry, I'm not sure what these particular embryos were graded)


And then finally, our 2 beautiful blasts that we transferred today. L-"Squirt", graded 5AB, and R- "Sprout" graded 4BA (as pictured)


As you can see, Squirt had already begun hatching when this photo was taken. When Dr. R brought in these photos and was telling us the condition of all our other embryos as well, he gave us a 72% chance of success using these little guys.

Just before transfer, he put them on a large screen so that we could see them before they were loaded. We were all pleasantly surprised to see that "Sprout" had begun to hatch as well, earning himself an upgrade to a 5BA!

Everything went perfectly. As we left the clinic we got so many "congratulations" that you'd think the results were in already, and this was a for sure thing! It was so surreal! It was a complete 180* from our last cycle. I have to admit; it was SO much better leaving with a smile on my face rather than stifling sobs.

Later, my nurse called to tell me that my progesterone is a bit high. (I can't believe I just typed that... too HIGH! Who'd have thunk?) They like it to be between 30-135 at this point, and mine is sitting at 232. I don't think it's EVER been that high! For now we aren't changing my dose, but she gave me a list of things to watch for. We'll see if I can handle the super-sensitivity. (I'm so glad I'm not crazy! Smells have been making me gag for a couple of days. Now I have a legitimate reason!)

The freezing situation is still up in the air. We decided to do an extended culture to see how many we can get. As of this morning, we still had 12 embryos of varying quality, with at least one worth freezing. Dr. R thinks we will get a few more by tomorrow (probably around 4.)

So, there's my update. Things are blissful right now. I really hope it lasts!



**ETA: Embryology just called. We have 5, maybe 6, to freeze! The embryologist is going to wait until this afternoon to see if the the 6th develops a little further. There are 3-5BB's, 2-4BB's, and 1-3BC. I am soooo okay with that! =)