The Embryos Are In!!

Well, the big transfer came on soooooooooooo slowly and was over SO quickly!! The embryos are officially in! It was an amazing experience to say the least. I guess I'll start from the beginning. Laura, Thom and I got up bright and early this morning to get on the road to the Brigham. Our transfer appointment was at 11:15 but they told us to be there by 10:15am. Pulling up to the Brigham was somewhat surreal-none of could believe that THIS time was the real transfer day. Of course, we got there a bit early so we dilly dallied around the hospital for a bit, took some pics, and said a quick prayer in the hospital chapel. Here is a pic of Laura and I getting ready to enter the procedure clinic.

When we got up to the clinic, they took Laura and I right in to get changed into our fancy outfits. Laura got to wear the gown and socks while Thom and I were decked out in full scrub suits. A few nurses came in and out, checked to make sure we were really who we said we were, and Laura had some blood drawn. But basically, we used this time to take silly pictures and eavesdrop on the other "surrogacy situation" right next door to us! Maybe this is more common than we thought! Here we are getting prepped.

After we goofed off for a bit, they finally let Thom come in to sit with us. Once he was decked out in his scrubs as well(he looked very handsome by the way!), it was time to get down to business. Dr. Srouji (the one who would be doing the procedure) came in to talk to us about our embryos and how they'd grown. A lot of it is just a bunch of numbers and very scientific sounding but here's the translation. The embryos are graded on cell division (how many divisions in the embryo) and percentage of fragmentation. We were told anywhere from 6-10 cell divisions is considered good, the higher being better. In terms of fragmentation, a 1 is excellent, 2 is good, 3 is average, etc. Well, we had 9 embryos fertilized (from the 11 eggs extracted) and the majority were really great quality. The doctor ended up suggesting that we transfer 2 embryos and chose a 9cell/1fragment embryo as well as an 8cell/1fragment embryo. So, in terms of grading, these are great quality! The reason they suggested 2 embryos was due to the fact that we most likely wont have more than 5 embryos to freeze. I guess when that is the case, they want to increase the chances of success on the fresh cycle because we'd most likely lose a few embryos in the "thawing" process if we choose to do a frozen cycle. Confusing, I know...but it's all determined by mathematics and you gotta have faith these guys know what they're doing!! If not, we may just end up with twins, which would be a double blessing! Once the doctor explained all of this to us, it was pretty much go time. Here is a pic of the 3 of us just before going into the transfer.

When we got into the OR, Laura hopped up on the table and Thom and I were given stools to sit right beside her. The doctor did a test run and then it was time to put the embryos in. The embryologist brought the embryos out of the lab in a tiny little catheter that was inserted into Laura's uterus. The whole procedure took about 10 minutes and Laura said it wasn't painful at all, just akward! If you saw these stirrups, you'd feel akward too! Well, the rest is history...now we just wait! The clinic ended up telling us that Laura does not need to be on strict bed rest but we're still happy she's here for a couple days so that she can take it easy and we can get in some quality time. Even though she likes to be active, she has been very good about relaxing so far. She even waited hours to pee because she was afraid she'd "pee out the embryos"! I keep telling her to look at this as a mini vacation for her anyways-no kids, sleep as late as you want, get waited on, ENJOY! It's not often one is forced to relax, right?? So, anyways, all in all it was an amazing experience. People have asked me if it was hard watching our embryos go into Laura's body. Its definitely a bit sad knowing that, if we're successful, I won't be real close to the baby/babies until I actually hold them in my arms. But I guess that's what the dad experiences in a pregnancy and children certainly don't love their daddy any less for it! It's just not something a woman expects to happen but I feel so blessed that we even have this opportunity. So to answer the question, I wouldn't say it was hard. It was bittersweet...but mostly sweet! I couldn't have picked a better woman to take my place-thank you, Laura! Alright, that's about it for now. Our pregnancy blood test is scheduled for May 21-seems so far away but hopefully it will fly! Here is our first ultrasound picture. People say they look just like us! :)

Keep up the prayers and, once again, THANK YOU for all your support!