The Eagle Has Landed

"The implantation went perfectly," is what Dr. Barnett said at about 12:45pm yesterday. We had two good eggs for implantation and can't be more excited.

I got to go with Kelly in the transfer room. It was pretty cool. A very sterile environment that was connected by a "fast food drive thru" window to the lab where they kept our babies. The doc got Kelly all ready, then the embryologist made his grand entrance with the eggs (thank God he didn't fall because he was walking like he was carrying the world's most precious fragile piece of glass ever). The hand-off to the doctor was slow and precise then doc inserted the eggs....then Voila! we were done. The process just took a few minutes. Here's Kelly and me right before we went in the transfer room.


Kelly is at home right now on bed-rest. She can only get up to get food and go to the bathroom. She will be able to get up and move around early tomorrow afternoon.

Last night she had her first progesterone injection and it went fairly well considering it is a big-girl shot. :)

This next photo is the coolest because not many people get to see their kids when they look like this.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers. Keep them coming because we are not done yet. We go in for our official pregnancy test next Wednesday.

Happy Turkey Day!

Update

I'm a couple of days late with this so there is a lot of info.

As you know the retrieval went well. They got 19 eggs. Well we found out on Thursday that there were only 10 eggs mature enough to fertilize and out of those 10 only 7 fertilized properly.

Friday we found out that of the 7 only 1 was "good" 3 were "average" and the rest were "poor." What does good, average and poor mean? We didn't know either. It didn't sound very good though. Nonetheless one good was better than none good so we were still very positive.

What we were told was that since they knew that there was for sure only one good egg there was no need to wait till Monday to implant them. Therefore, we were told to go ahead and come in first thing Saturday morning for implantation.

Our plan was to put in the good one and the best average one...if there was such a thing. However, when we got to the clinic this morning we were greeted with wonderful news! It turned out that overnight the "good" egg turned "excellent" and so did 3 of the "average" eggs. Apparently there is a scale that the embryologists use to grade the progress of the eggs during the incubation period. 1 is excellent, 2 is good, 3 is average, 4 is poor and 5 is ...whatever you get it.

It turns out that our eggs were just late bloomers and that was fine by us. As a result we postponed the implatation till Monday. This give the eggs a couple of more days to progress therefore giving them a chance to jockey for position....the ultimate goal being Win and Place!!

We appreciate everyone keeping us in their thoughts and prayers....SEE IT'S WORKING!!!

Step 6: The Retrieval

Yesterday Kelly and I went in for the retrieval. Everything went very well. They were able to retrieve 19 eggs!! Kelly was pretty groggy afterward. She slept most of the day and was a bit sore. Today she's still sore but is up and around.

The lab fertilized the eggs yesterday and we expect to hear from them today with a progress report. So if you think about it, barring any negative effects, we conceived yesterday. Wow.....I just keep picturing what our child will look like. I am ....we are so excited. I can't even get any work done today.

Anyway, we are due to go back in on Monday....hopefully sooner...for the implantation. Cross your fingers.

Oh yeah, we start progesterone injections tomorrow. Kelly is not looking forward to that. But no worries, I've been practicing on sticking that HUGE needle in an orange. I got it down packed. I'm so good the orange doesn't even flinch.

Sonogram 2

We went in for a sonogram on Saturday. Everything looked good. The follicles were growing nicely. Kelly is starting to get uncomfortable. Ladies, imagine that time of the month when you ovulate. You can feel a little bloated and crampy just for one egg right? Well, imagine having 20+!! She is feeling unbelievably bloated and quite sensitive in the abdominal area. She's a trooper though.

Now we fast forward to today. Kelly went in for her last sonogram. Great news! We have 15 mature eggs for retrieval. The average is 10 to 12. My wife is such an over achiever. She has to give herself a shot of Ovidrel tonight which is supposed to induce ovulation. Then on Wednesday we go in for the retrieval.

The retrieval is kind of a big deal because they will have to put her under. From that point our eggs are in the hands of the embryologist who will fertilize the eggs and monitor them for about 5 days. We are guessing they will put them back in next Monday or so....we hope.

Everyone please keep Kelly in your thoughts. We are very excited!!!

Sonogram

This morning we went in for a sonogram to check on the progress of the follicle growth. The tech told us that there were 22....yes 22 follicles there. Now, there are a couple of things to consider. First, we still have a few more days of follistim injections and second, not all 22 will be large and mature enough for fertilization. The good news is that we should have the 10 - 12 wanted for fertilization. It will be better news if we can get more.

We have an appointment on Saturday for another sonogram. We should find out then when we go in for the harvest. That sounds so creepy...like a scary movie when someone wants to harvest another's organs. I guess I should say retrieval.

Anyway, we are thinking the "retrieval" should be next Wednesday. Let's hope.

See ya.

Step 5: Follistim Injections

Last night we started step 5...the Follistim injections. Drugs.com defines Follistim as:
* Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) is a naturally occurring hormone. FSH is important in the development of follicles (eggs) produced by the ovaries. FSH is also important in the development of sperm.
* Follistim is used to stimulate a follicle (egg) to develop and mature. It is used when a woman desires pregnancy and her ovaries can produce a follicle but hormonal stimulation is not sufficient to make the follicle mature. Follistim is also used to stimulate the development of multiple eggs for in vitro fertilization. Follistim can be used by men to increase the production of sperm.

So now my poor wife is injecting herself twice a day once with Lupron and once with Follistim. She will be doing this for at least another week. We have a sonogram scheduled for this Thursday to check on the follicle growth. We will let you know how it goes.

BTW-I'm not taking Follistim.

Softball Injury

This is just an FYI. When a softball is hit with a bat and it hits you straight in the shin at 60mph it really hurts. Oh yeah and swells up nicely too.