Wish you were here!

If you were here, I'd offer you some tea and then wow you with my 2-test series of positive HPTs. They are still too faint to scan or photograph well, so you really need to be in the same room to appreciate yesterday's whispery pink test line (which showed up after several minutes) and its remarkable transformation into today's "Show me your urine, and I'll show you my face" bubblegum-hued beauty.

I know. It is inappropriately early to squawk about being pregnant. Gauche, really. I am only 10dpo/7dp3dt. Too many unknowns. And way too many knowns: 43 years old. Low odds for sustained success. First-hand experience losing a chromosomally abnormal fetus made from a perfect-looking embryo. The betas might stink and the baby might die. (Harsh, yes, but I want to be clear that I see clearly through my misty-gray glasses.)

However, I've made a personal vow to embrace the light of this last chance. I'm choosing hopefulness over gloom and choosing it NOW. Surely that will be difficult some days. But I've got it covered today.

Embies on board!

That should be on a bumper sticker. Or better yet, a static-cling window decal so you can quickly and discreetly adjust your status.

Here they are, my 8-celled beauties. They were compacting on themselves as the embryologist snapped their portrait. (So cute how they wanted to keep dividing.)




All 3 are strapped in for the 2ww ride, and I'm officially PUPO.

I want a microfluidic chip in my culture medium too!

Just read this article about new IVF technology on the horizon.

If findings hold up, it sounds like IVF-ers of the future will get more accurate information about embryo quality, which in turn will improve success rates and lower costs.

No totsicles

Heard today that our 2 "extra" embryos didn't make it to freeze. My immediate thought was that their demise reflects poorly on the quality of the ones we put back. But no good can come from mulling that.

My 4 embies

We were shocked to learn that we still had 6 embryos chugging along yesterday. We chose to put back 4. The other 2 were of lesser quality but not bad. We'll find out tomorrow whether they make it to the blastocyst stage and can be frozen for a future cycle.

I'll have to do a later post about both the ER and transfer experiences, but I'm not up for that today. (They were good.) Although I'm supposed to be on bedrest, I've just spent the morning dealing with "emergency" work issues. The non-emergent kind that come up only when some people remember you've taken a couple days off. The work wasn't physically taxing, just annoying. I need to get back to my feet-up/nothing-else-on-my-mind state for the rest of the day.

Here's yesterday's photo of our 4 little 8-celled wonders. Behold the miracles!