Saturday, February 28, 2009

Update after today's transfer - pregnant until proven otherwise


I woke up at the crack of dawn this morning, too excited to sleep, but it might have been a side effect of the progesterone too.

The acupuncture session prior to transfer helped calm me down significantly. Thirty minutes prior to transfer, I took a Val.ium the clinic provided. At least, I tried to. I was alone in the waiting room, retrieved the Val.ium from my purse, and as I opened it, the pill broke into a million little pieces. A largish chunk fell into my purse, some of it was on the palm of my hand, and some powder was left in the pill wrapper. Argh! Gone was the serene calm. I was laughing out loud at Murphy, my constant companion. There I was, licking my palm like a junkie, frantically scratching through my purse to find the little orange getaway nugget, and dumping the rest of the pill wrapper contents onto my tongue. I'm so together.

Needless to say, the Val.ium didn't do much of anything. I don't know what I expected, but I didn't feel a sudden wave of calm or floatyness, nor did it help to relax my muscles (which was the primary reason I was persuaded to take it, because how would I even know to relax my cervix?)

We were soon dressed in OR garb, me proudly sporting crazy rainbow toe-socks this time around. The RE came in, loved the socks, discussed the embryo quality with us, and gave us a picture showing all seven embies. Apparently the embryos weren't doing as great as we had hoped. Although they are all 5 days old, just one made it to blast. The other 6 were all cleaved embryos that may or may not make it to blast.

The RE advised transferring three to four embryos. We were comfortable with three, given my age and the embryo quality. It was the hardest decision to make, because my heart was set on transferring two at most. I'm well aware of the risks of High Order Multiples, but I was swayed by the REs reasoning. The embryologists will continue to monitor the other 4 embies, and that should give us some indication on how the three in utero might be developing. Even though this is not the outcome I had hoped for, I'm still cautiously hopeful as even less-than-perfect embies can become healthy babies.

The RE left us alone for 10 minutes while they prepared the embies, and hubby and I had some space to just absorb the moment. Dh whispered beautiful things to me, while I clutched the photo of our embies. It was perfect.

The transfer itself went very well, and was over much quicker than I had anticipated. The speculum is obviously pretty uncomfortable, but my RE thankfully moves quickly. He pressed down very hard on my tummy with the u/s wand to see my uterus more clearly, but it was still a heck of a lot better than having the d.ildocam inside me every other day. A few deep breaths, hubby squeezing my hand, and then it was over.

The RE had me lay back for another 15 minutes, during which I tried to imagine the embies implanting over the next few days and growing inside me. This is as pregnant as I've ever been.

I went for a 2nd acupuncture session and fell asleep during the session. Calm. Content. I slept for a few hours when we got home too, following my doctor's instructions to "be a couch potato this weekend." Now THAT I can totally do.

Dh has been on pampering patrol - bringing tea, snacks, and pineapple. He will be making dinner tonight. Gotta love men who get it.

21 comments:

Meinsideout said...

Congratulations on your transfer! I will be thinking bfp thoughts for you.

My man gets it too! It makes it so much easier.

Stacie said...

Here from ICLW.

What a great day for me to visit your blog! I am so excited for you. You are very right; you are PUPO. Fingers crossed that you stay that way for oh, about 9 more months! :-)

Good luck!

Carrie said...

Woo hoo! I am so excited for you- the transfer went well, and as you point out, you are pregnant for now! I am glad you are taking it easy with that spoiling hubby of yours. Enjoy having your embies back home. HUGS!!

Kate said...

First- congratulations- my RE said you cannot tell by looking which ones will do well-- so not to worry about that (easy to say but hey, he has more experience than I ever will)-- he said those that start slowly are doing just that, starting slowly. Not to worry. So
congratulations on being as pregnant as you've ever been (I totally get that, it is what i was hoping for and hope for too)--

and love your toe socks, I had the same ones when I was much younger baack in the 70's. Kept them through the mid 80's as LEG WARMERS

oh
my
god

see? Now I can't run for office. I blame you.

Hang in there, happy couch potato-ing, best wishes to you two and your three.

-Kate

Anonymous said...

PUPO! What an extraordinary thing. You're pregnant as you've ever been. I'm thrilled for you. Can't wait to join you in the wait. And your husband sounds lovely. Tell him he gets the thumbs up.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the transfer!

Anonymous said...

what an exciting day! i really hope to hear good news about your remaining embies. relax the rest of your weekend and let your hubby pamper you...sounds like he's already doing a great job at that!

ME! said...

YEAH!!! I glad things went well...minus Uncle Murphy. He always has to stick his nose in some where for us infertiles. Kick back relax and catch up on the stellar Lifetime Movies! :)

poppy.f.seed said...

sounds like a really nice transfer!

I agree, take it as easy as possible during your wait. I was way too active after ivf #1.
Take lots of couch breaks, and enjoy DH cooking for you!

Gil said...

Yay for a great transfer. I am keeping my fingers crossed for you guys! Take it easy and try not to dwell on it TOO much.

BTW, you've hereby been nominated for an Honest Scrap Award. Peek at my blog for details!

Conveying all BFP wishes to you right now!!!

Emmy said...

I love that picture where you're holding the pictures of your embryos.

I'm thinking lots of implanting thoughts for you!

Anonymous said...

thanks for your note on my blog!

those are some seriously beautiful embryos you have there! hope the triplets are snuggling in tight!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all the surgery advice! That's a good tip to ask them to start the IV early. I think they let me drink broth last time for the prep, so I wasn't feeling quite as faint.

Anonymous said...

Love the fancy socks! I got a pair just for the transfer, too. I figured it would be nice to dress up a little. And my acupuncture session afterwards was probably the most relaxing one yet! Good luck! You are ahead of me a couple of days since you were a 5dt and I'm a 3 but it's nice to be in the 2WW with someone! Good luck!

Dana said...

Oh, that gives me hope since my transfer is coming up!! congrats!

Sapphire said...

That's totally awesome! I hope everything goes great and you will get your BFP! Oh and I love the toe socks, I thought I was the only one in the world that still wore them.

Chelle said...

YAY for a good transfer! Cheers to the 2WW! Sending sticky thoughts your way...and of course keeping some for myself!

Anonymous said...

I wish you the best of luck! I had to share that I once dropped my last dose of Clomid in the toilet. I scooped it out, stared at it, wiped it a bit, and popped it in my mouth. The things we do!

Kate said...

Just wanted to send a quick note to say I am thinking of you- hoping all is well and that you are comfortable and happy and good.

What IF? said...

Thank you, everyone, for the stunning comments. They've really carried me through.

Sil, your story about dropping the Clomid in the toilet had me in stitches. (Sorry, I know it's not funny.) Now I'll absolutely have to tell the story about what happened to me the other night. *&^% Murphy was involved, as always.

Anonymous said...

It was so great reading all these comments & it's a sense of community support. I too had my transfer & it was easy & my hubby was fabulous..just not waiting 10 days to see the results..that is the hardest of all..good luck to all//