Feeling hopeful.

Just to recap what we learned on Tuesday - there were 8 fertilized embryos from my eggs and 4 fertilized donor embryos. On Thursday (day 3 of embryonic development) we called and were told that all 12 of the embryos were either a Grade 1 or 2. Fabulous news. Friday they told us that quite a few had not made it and that a few were slow growing. All in all we had a total of 4 embryos - 3 were from my eggs and one was from the donor. The 2 best looking embryos were from my eggs and they were a Grade 1 and the other 2 (one from my eggs and the one donor were Grade 2). The rest they said they would keep in the growth medium and see if they might catch up. We expected that they all wouldn't make it as it is common for about only 1/3 of embryos to make it to the blastocyst stage. But the good news is that those that do make it are far more likely to result in a live birth.

This morning the numbers were the same but they were now blastocysts and were told to come in at 11:45 for the transfer. How exciting!! We decided to use embryo glue and assisted hatching for this cycle in hope of improving our chances. Now the next question was which blastocyst(s) to transfer? We already knew that we wanted to transfer 2 and at the suggestion of the embryologist, we decided to transfer the two Grade 1 embryos. We were warned that this might result in twins... (are some people surprised when they have twins after transferring two embryos?) The other two blastocysts will be frozen for the possibility of a future cycle.

Usually Jason has to wait in the room while I go for the transfer but this time he got to go with me. Our doctor came back from Moravia early so that he could do our transfer and we were the last transfer for the day so he invited Jason to come see the procedure. This was really special for us as that meant he got to hold my hand and see the blastocysts on the screen before they were transferred.

This is not the best picture of our two blastocysts but there they are!

We are feeling very hopeful for this cycle so keep lighting candles and sending love our way!!

xo- katherine