The Babies Have Come Home

Skip called work today and said he might be in late, as we wanted to talk to the RE and see if we might transfer today. Calista stayed home from school.

The RE’s office opens at 8:30 am, and by 8:50 am, I was tired of waiting, so I called them (hey, I gave them 20 minutes!). I spoke with the embryologist who first gave me the SA results. Skip has been on supplements and made diet changes, and we did see improvement. Though his morphology and motility stayed about the same, his count and volume were triple. The problems were the same, but with three times as many sperm, we had many more good ones to work with. That was good news.

Then he told me that of the three eggs that were fertilized with ICSI, one did not develop normally and was lost. I felt my heart jump to my throat, but then he told me that one of the eggs that was placed with sperm to mature was fertilized naturally and we still had three! I was so relived to hear that.

I asked him about the grading, and he said they were all a 1, and that was based on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the very best. That was such good news.

Then we talked about culturing the embryos to day 5. I told him that I didn’t see the reason for continuing to culture them in the lab because it wasn’t as good an environment as my body would be, and I thought that the point of culturing to day 5 was so that they could pick the very best to transfer. He agreed but also said that they can tell a lot more about our fertility issues when the embryos get to blastocyst (day 5). I explained that had we had the money to try this again, I’d be all for experimenting, but this was our only shot and I couldn’t take the risk. He said he’d talk to the doctor and call me back.

He called back about 10 minutes later and said they could transfer today at noon. I had said if they wanted to take just one to blast to see what our issues might be, I’d be ok with that, but he said there’s no point to freezing just one, since the chance of it surviving the thaw was only 50%. I was ok with that, and we scheduled to transfer all three at noon.

This was at 9:10 am, and I hurried and called my acupuncturist to see if I might be able to get in today. She said they had a 9:30 am — but it takes me 1/2 hour to get there! I literally threw on some clothes, brushed my teeth and ran out the door.

On the way to acupuncture, I was thinking about our numbers… 9 follicles… 5 eggs… 3 embryos. 9-5-3. I thought I should play the lottery. Then I realized 9-5-3 = 9-5-03… Calista’s birthday! How odd.

Just as I was about to turn into the acupuncture office, I noticed a weird Cadillac in front of me. Then I looked closer and saw it was actually a hearse — with a coffin inside. I took it as a sign that one life is ending as a new one begins.

I got in to my appontment and we got started. Partway through, I heard a baby crying. The acupuncturist came in and said there was good baby energy in the office today — there was a young baby in the waiting room, crying. I took it as another good sign and tried to take in all that good baby energy!

I left for home, and got home at 11:10 am. We had to leave for the transfer by 11:15 am. Ugh! I grabbed a bagel, put ponytails in Calista’s hair and back out we went.

Calista and Skip were with me for the transfer. We explained to Calista that the doctor was putting baby seeds in my tummy and we were hoping they would grow into babies. She liked that and hopes that they grow into girls.
The transfer was fine, and the RE said it was as good as a transfer could go! That was good. He said that the embryos were 6-, 4- and 2-celled. The 2 cell one was likely the one that fertilized naturally, as it was fertilized later than the others.

After the transfer, I got to lay around for an hour while Skip and Calista went to the park. I listened to Pachbell and visualized a lovely, inviting uterus welcoming our babies. After about 45 minutes of that, I couldn’t bear to think of uteruses anymore, so I read People Magazine.

Now I am home and am to be on bed rest for two days. My Beta is on Friday, November 3rd.

The funny thing is, I was so stressed out, so scared we’d have nothing to transfer. Now that we’ve transferred, I feel so much better. But now Skip is stressed. He said everything leading up to this was ok for him, but now, knowing they are there an not knowing what they are doing is stressing him out. At least we weren’t stressed at the same time.
Oh, how could I forget? As I lay here on the couch, I was playing with the DirecTV remote and saw horoscopes. Here’s mine:

“What’s been gestating over a period of time is now ready to be born. But you still need to make space in your life for this new arrival. Ask for support in clearing out an area, both physically and mentally.”

Interesting.