Report Cards never looked so good.

Sorry this post is a week late.

With the waiting over, the next step was to see the results of egg extraction and get the all important report card of how our little embryos did. At this point, the waiting was killing us, as we already knew that we had 17 eggs extracted, and only 10 were mature enough to try to become embryos. Of those 10, they already let us know that 8 had successfully become embryos. Then we had to wait five days until last Monday September 1st, to figure out how many, if any, we were be able to call viable.

Due to our situation, we were doing the day 5 transfer as it will allow more time to ensure that the best embryo was choose. But that also means that its more time for the ones that are not as strong to stop growth. That 5 days of waiting was hard as even after 1 day, our 17 become 8, so after 4 more days ... would it become 2? 1? maybe even none? What happens is that on that fifth day, we would receive a report card. We aren't even fully pregnant yet, and already we are getting report cards, yikes. At least there is no major homework, yet.

Finally that fifth day came around. Now the trick for the embryo transfer was to come to the appointment with a full bladder. The appointment was at 9 in the morning, so Kristy had a big glass of water before we headed out, and then had a large coffee on the drive. Apparently that wasn't even close enough, as after we got to the dr's office, they made her drink another huge cup of water, I mean huge like those massive big gulp sodas you always see at gas stations but you are sure no one ever buys because its more like buying a gallon of soda then truly a cup.

So we were back at waiting, waiting 30 minutes or so, to have that water fill up her bladder to the point she was almost ready to do the potty dance. We must have been such geeks at that point as we had brought our camera. We were taking pictures of the drink. Of the day. We wanted to commemorate this day, and every step we have went though on this journey. Finally, after getting a photo album worth of stupid pictures, we got a knock on the door and the embryologist came in. This was the point we were waiting for, we had worried about, we were excited about. Our first report card.

And we heard those dreaded words that have become our blessed words "You guys are so young ....". Immediately I was relieved as i could read on her face, that it was good news. Those same words could be used negatively if she was sad, like you have many more chances, but she was happy. " ... so the embryo's are doing amazing." she smiled looking down at her grade sheet. Of the 8 embryos, its most common to get about half last the 5 days, and then vary in grades. " You have 1, 2, 3, 4, oh my, 5 grade A embryos, and 1 grade B, and 2 that just need a little more time to tell." Whew talk about good news. We have lots of chances, enough chances to not worry. I guess it pays yet again to be young and doing this process.

We even got to look at the embryo that they transferred back into Kristy. We got a picture of it. How many people can show their children that hey, this is you when you were an embryo 5 days old? The transfer went smooth, and the doctor said to try to take it easy for the rest of the day, more for piece of mind then anything else. So we rented a few movies and relaxed like our lives depended on it. By the time we arrived home from the doctor however we got a call from them saying that the remaining 2, that just needed more time, had already become viable, so from our 8, we got 8. WHOO HOO! I mean I don't want 8 kids, but if we did have that many, Kristy could have her own show on TLC about her bakery where all the kids helped make the cakes with her and who doesn't love seeing kids playing with cake right?

So now we are in the waiting game. Waiting to see if it took. Waiting to see if this journey will continue immediately, or if we will have to go to number 2 of our 8 for another shot. Wish us luck, and keep us in your prayers. I loved our first report card, and I'm looking forward to many many more thought the years of our family.

Finally ... it pays to be young

In almost every step of this process, with each doctor we have seen, we were always reminded of how young we were. It usually started with the doctor coming in and looking at the chart. Then looking at us and asking what brought us in. And then they look at the chart again, as if they don't believe our Date of Birth listed. And then finally they tell us something pretty close to "your very young, so you really don't need this, you can try for a few more years before you would need something as "extreme" as IVF. By this point we were used to having people look at us and second guess our decisions. And at least now we know that we weren't too young, and that this process would happen regardless, so might as well do it now compared to later.

This week we heard the same words "your so young..." but it was in many good ways. As we got ready for the egg retreval, and the daily injections were going on, it was "your so young ... so we'll lower your medication and you only need 2 shots instead of 3." So being young in that case saved us a ton of money on drugs and a bit of pain and discomfort with 1 less shot a day.

Then on the day of egg retrieval, we heard it again, a few times. As a husband, I felt so helpless that day, as I was told to wait in the waiting room and they would come and get me when they were done. With being told it would be about an hour, but i could ask the receptionist for an update if I wanted, that hour was one of the longest of my life. Originally the extraction was set for 9:45, but Kristy went back around 9:20, so I wasn't sure about if my hour was from the original time or the time she went back. As the clock was about 10:25, I wondered ... should i ask for an update now. In the end, I waiting, each minute harder then the rest, but finally around 10:48 the nurse came and pulled me back.

Its hard to say my feelings, nervous, excited, but more then anything i was trying to look for some emotion on the nurses face, to tell me how it went. Our nurse however would clean up in Vegas as her poker face gave nothing away, and the lack of any emotion or happiness made me worry more. Luckily, after we were out of the public waiting area, her poker face disappeared in a flash and a calming smile covered as she delivered the words I wanted to hear "Everything went amazing, your wife did great!". Whew.

And then the age thing popped its cute little head up again. "the typical amount of eggs we get is 10 to 12, but because your so young, we successful extracted 17." Wow. No wonder Kristy felt like she was full all the time, she had 17 golf balls inside of her insides. We were told that our next steps would be to see how many were mature, and then out of those that were mature, to see how many take to fertilized. Beyond that, we just had to come back in five days and we would begin our process of putting one back in, the best one, and hoping for the best.

The pain of the day was defiantly there, and Kristy got her 10 commandments of the next ten days as well. Now why they didn't tell us these before the procedure, I'm not sure, but I guess we'll just have to deal. No intercourse for 10 days, no Alcohol, no heavy lifting, no strenuous exercise, no pain medication beyond Tylenol, Get lots of rest, not more then 36 oz of liquid for the first few days, no scuba diving, no parachuting, and no cliff diving. Alright, the last three are made up, but i needed 10, so can you blame me?

The only thing that caught us off guard was really the alcohol. The Alcohol was something we knew when we were pregnant, we would have to give up, but this was something we planned to celebrate during the in-between process, a bottle of champagne, a target rumba drink to commemorate our journey. If we would have known before our appointment it would be done, we would have better celebrated its departure from our lives. Gave it a nice going away party.

Well after we left the hospital, It was all about taking it easy that day. We got a couple of red box movies, plus our netflix and just vegged in recovery mode. It was hard to wait that next day, as we would receive a call from our doctor in 24 hours with the results and count of where everything ended up. It was less hard as i wasn't waiting alone, but it was still something that our lives were so close to starting that next chapter, that we just wanted to know.

The call came and informed us that of our 17, 10 were mature. I'm not sure if that's normal, or not, but it doesn't matter much. We only need one. And of the 10 mature, 8 successful became embryos. Now that number is good, I know that. Its weird as we know that we'll only put one back in at a time, but suddenly its like we have 8 baby's growing. Now some may not survive the 5 days, or they may be a grade c instead of our A+ that we want. Regardless, we have great great chances to have a child and very possibly have enough for future babies too with the frozen ones that remain.

We already feel like proud parents, and not to jinx ourselves, but we are excited to begin this next stage. Its not as hard to wait for them to put it back in, as we know that by waiting, it is increasing our changes of getting pregnant on the first try dramatically. Finally in our lives, the words "your so young ..." have come in handy. Finally they have meant that our process will be that much easier, and our rewards will be that much greater.