Fertility Journey {Embryo Transfer}

One of the cool things about doing IVF as opposed to conceiving naturally is that you get to be so aware of everything that is going on in your body at all times. You get to actually see every step of the way exactly how your body goes about trying to get pregnant. It is definitely the most fascinating thing I have ever witnessed, no wonder they call it the miracle of life.

After my egg retrieval, the embryologist immediately fertilized the eggs and then monitored them over the next 5 days as the cells divided and the little embryos developed. By day 5, the embryologist had examined and graded each of my embryos based on quality and selected the best one to prepare for transfer.

Many fertility doctors give you the option of how many embryos you want to implant. Majority of women choose to implant two embryos simply because the odds of at least one of them implanting properly becomes much higher. This is where a lot of those twins you see out there in the world come from :) I was reluctant to implant two embryos from the very beginning. Let's be honest, I don't know what the heck to do with one baby, let alone two! I did not want to take a chance on ending up with twins. Especially when my doctor mentioned that based on my young age and good health, putting in two embryos would definitely result in twins for me. No thank you. My doctor also expressed concern that since my ovaries produced so many eggs initially, he was afraid that putting in two embryos would send my body into overdrive and possibly cause serious health risks for me. Therefore, the only logical option here was to simply transfer just one embryo. Heck if this one didn't work, I was on track to have about 15 more chilling in the freezer waiting on me.

On September 16, 2013, I arrived at the IVF clinic (my home away from home for the past 9 months) ready for my embryo transfer. The procedure would not require any medication or anesthesia and Jared and I were going to be able to watch the entire procedure on the ultrasound screen. I was super excited to get to watch this whole thing as it was happening. The only annoying thing about this whole transfer process is that I had to have a full bladder. Like seriously full. I had to drink a ton of water and then sit there and wait while not being allowed to go to the bathroom. Apparently, when your bladder is really full it makes your cervix and uterus lay flat, giving the doctor a straight shot at getting the embryo implanted in the perfect spot.

Into the operating room we went, and they got me all set up with Jared in a chair right next to me. Honest truth, I was terrified that I was going to pee on the doctor. I seriously had to go to the bathroom that badly. The nurse informed me that I surely would not be the first or the last person to pee on the doctor during this procedure. Oh my lord. Good news, I held my own and did not pee on him. Thank goodness, that would have been embarrassing. Once the doctor got me ready and the nurse had the ultrasound on my belly, we had a front row view to the inside of my uterus. In came the embryologist with a catheter which had my one little embryo loaded into it. He handed it off to the doctor and then we all got to watch on the screen as the catheter went in and the embryo was placed in the perfect spot. It was literally the coolest thing I have ever witnessed. Once he took the catheter out, the embryologist inspected it under a microscope to make sure that the embryo was in fact out of there.

Next, I was instructed to lay on the table for another 15 minutes to make sure everything was settled in there before getting up. Everyone else left, leaving Jared and I alone in there with our ultrasound screen soaking in the moment that would hopefully be when our first child was conceived. Me, of course, being me, made Jared hand over his phone so I could snap a photo of the frozen ultrasound screen. If this was really going to be the moment that our child was conceived, I wanted some documentation.

 
The transfer procedure was virtually painless, but I had to take it easy for the next day or so. Unfortunately, my swollen belly continued to stick around for another few days just like the nurse said it would. Then, one day I woke up and my stomach was flat again. So weird.

We were now in the dreaded two week waiting period. For the past 18 months I was so used to waiting through these two weeks with hope and then end up being disappointed. Would this time be different? Or would I be adding yet another negative pregnancy test to my trophy case? I did my best to keep my mind off of the upcoming test date that lingered in my future. The time actually went by pretty fast and I didn't really think about it too much. I think everyone else around me was much more nervous about it than I was. The only thing I was really nervous about was that this time I was not going to be peeing on the stick, I was going in for a blood test. And if you think waiting on the pee stick for 2 minutes is nerve wracking, trying waiting all day for the office to call with the blood results. I was excited/anxious and yet dreading that day.

Finally, the testing day arrived. September 30, 2013. My blood draw took place at 7:00am, along with all the other women who went through this same IVF cycle with me. My IVF nurse informed me that she would be calling me between 12:00 and 4:00 that afternoon with the results. A four hour waiting window? This is a blood test people, not having cable installed. Oh well, I convinced myself that if I could survive the past two weeks of waiting then another couple hours wouldn't kill me. So Jared and I went home to wait it out together...thus commencing the most unproductive day ever. Both of us were too terrified to go anywhere, leave each other's side or do anything where we might miss the call or not be together when the call came in. Alas, we sat on the couch together and watched hours of television, phones in hand. I was so nervous that I was literally on the verge of vomiting the entire time.

A million thoughts kept running through my mind all day. "This is it. No, don't get your hopes up, you're just going to be disappointed. No, be positive. The doctor was very confident that this would work. But then again, he was confident that the other 4 IUIs were going to work too. Don't get too excited just yet. Don't jinx it. What do we do next? How am I going to react?"

I also knew that no matter what the results were, I was going to have some questions for the nurse that I wanted to ask. I went ahead and made two lists of questions. One list of "if it's positive" questions and one list of "if it's negative" questions. I knew that either way I was going to be so overwhelmed and emotional that there was no way I was going to be able to remember my questions or even think straight.

As the hours ticked by, I was about to loose my mind. I would think, "maybe they are saving me until the end of the list because they want to end their day on a good note". Then I would think, "maybe they are saving me until the end because it's bad news and they know that I'm going to have a lot of questions and keep them on the phone for a while". I seriously lost track of what I was thinking and how I was feeling. I originally thought that I had a "gut feeling" one way or the other, but my 3:30pm I had no idea what was going on inside me anymore.

By this point, I was on the edge of the couch. Hell I might not have even been sitting on the couch anymore, I could have possibly been levitating in thin air. I kept telling Jared, "they forgot about me, they forgot about me"! Finally, I said if they don't call by 3:45, I'm calling them. And about two minutes after those words left my mouth, at right around 3:35, I got the call.

Sorry guys, but the English major in me just can't resist this perfect opportunity for a great cliff hanger. Check out my post tomorrow evening for the results.