Chapter 3 - Egg Collection & Embryo Transfer

Well, here we are again! My posts have been infrequent of late, but Chapter 3 is now in motion and there's no time like the present to share our updates...

First of all, let me say that I couldn't be less stressed. It is odd really. I'm sure it is largely due to having so much work on my plate that I barely have time to sleep! That aside, I think there is just a nice 'calm' that comes with knowing the process and understanding the need for patience...and trusting your doctor implicitly. Yes, we LOVE our doctor.

Egg Donor:
We liked the donor from our first pregnancy and we were thrilled with the donor from our second pregnancy, but we LOVE this donor. I've sat and stared at her photo until I feel like I know her. She has the most beautiful smile and I have felt from the time we selected her that she is the one - the one that will bring us our family. She was a first time donor, but had two children of her own. We had no expectation of how many eggs she would produce or what the quality would be. Well, let me tell you how surprised we were when Dr Shivani called to say she collected 32 mature eggs!!! WOW! So, I started to do the math - assuming a 70% fertilization rate we would have 20 embryos - assuming 50% of those were good quality we'd have 10 embryos - 4 for now and 6 to freeze for a second attempt if needed. Are you following my math? Well, let me once again tell you how surprised we were when Dr Shivani called to say that 29 of the eggs fertilized (90% fertilization) and 26 of them were Grade A and 3 were Grade B!!! We transferred 4 Grade A today and froze 22 Grade A and 3 Grade B embryos!!! Enough for probably four more attempts, God forbid we need them.

We have 25 excellent quality FROZEN EMBIES :)

Dr S was thrilled with the results.

Surrogate:
Now, this was the tough thing. Surrogate K (from our last cycle) is what Dr S calls a 'dream surrogate'. I laughed when Dr S said there are 'no shenanigans' with K - I love that word. She takes her meds and never complains. Well, unfortunately, K began bleeding a few days ago and was unable to go through with the embryo transfer today. Fortunately for us, Dr S stayed up most of one night organizing a back up plan. She was able to move another surrogate into our cycle and now K (who is now better) will go to another set of Intended Parents - I think next week. We wish her the best of luck...

Pregnancy test is January 26.

And, if we get a negative, we'll be just fine with 25 fabulous embies in storage!

:)