Embryo Transfer

I've was very sweetly informed that I have people stalking my blog for an update. That was so mean of me to not update you all yesterday. I would apologize, but I was floating in a bubble of Valium and happiness, so I probably would have just put pictures of unicorns & kittens anyhow. 

First, I have to give a little biology lesson so this is fully understandable. When an egg fertilizes, the cells inside start to divide. First 2 cells, then 4, 8, 16, etc. 

Normally by day 3, a normal healthy embryo will be at least 8 cells. 

At day 4, it is the hope that the eggs reach C/M stage-I never remember what CM stands for, but picture a raspberry. 

At day 5, the hope is they turn into a blast. A blast has so many cells, you can't count them, and they start to turn into little blobs of cells instead of little circles. Then the little blobs start moving to the edges of the eggs to break out and grow to a baby. Part of this is creating a "lake" in the egg, which helps becomes the amniotic sac. If the lake is created, it is considered an expanded blast. 

Finally, the blast breaks out of the shell, implants into the uterine lining, and baby is made. 

Here's a fun, non-interactive picture for reference: 

Left to right: day 1, day 3 8-cell, day 4 8+ cell, C/M, blast, baby. 

I was scared for yesterday. Last time, we only had 4 C/M. None had made it to blast. 

Here's a picture of what we transferred in 2010: 

Well, I didn't need to be scared. Our overachieving streak continued! We have THREE expanded blasts!! Not just regular blasts, ours decided a lake was a great idea as well! AND we have three more early blasts AND 4 C/M. 

Here is a picture of the two em-babies that were transferred yesterday. Look at those lakes! Little overachievers! See the difference between last time?!

Doc still did the assistive hatching. This helps them break the shell and expand out. She does this if we haven't done implantation before. You hear the little laser in the next room poke a microscopic hole in the eggs. Kinda sounds like an Atari game. 

We transferred two expanded Blasts. The other expanded and 3 early will all be frozen. The 4 C/M will be grown out one more day to see if they become blasts. If they don't stall, those will be frozen as well.

Here are the hard numbers: 

50% chance of implantation (embryo nuzzled into uterus)

45% chance of chemical pregnancy (it nuzzled, but didn't grow)

37% chance of actual pregnancy (full term, dirty diapers, etc.)

8% chance of twins

>1% chance of triplets, quads, etc. (sorry, no Octo-mom here). 

Now we wait. And wait. And wait. No results for 20 days. I turn 35 on Sunday, and I'll just be chillin'. I was hoping for crab legs, but those are on the no-list. Here's hoping 20 days goes by fast! 

Thinking TONS of extra super sticky thoughts.