Hey, Remember me?

Hey, Remember me?

It's been a minute.

This post was either going to be 'yay! we're pregnant' or 'shoot, it didn't work - what's next?'. Unfortunately, it's the latter.

what happened?

I signed off in the midst of our cycle. Everything went literally perfect (I hate when people use literally when something didn't literally happen - but I assure that it's an appropriate use of the word).

egg retrieval - 17(!!) eggs retrieved

fertilization - 9(!!) eggs fertilized normally

8 of the 9 fertilized made it to the blastocyst stage. 

blastocyst - an embryo that has developed for five to seven days after fertilization and has two distinct cell types and a central cavity filled with fluid. The cells in a blastocyst have started to differentiate and the surface cells around the cavity are called the trophectoderm and will later develop into the placenta. The inner cell mass becomes the fetus.

EIGHT. 

It's almost unheard of. Above average. Excellent!

We transferred one perfect embryo. Per everything else, the transfer was flawless. To make the procedure more comfortable, my RE prescribes Valium. I've never had Valium and didn't quite know what to expect. Phil was thoroughly entertained because it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was slurring my words, stumbling and requested the drunk girl favorite; taco bell.  

Then we waited. 

The 9 days in between the embryo transfer and blood draw/beta seemed like an eternity and somehow I had enough willpower to not use any home pregnancy tests. 

I had grand plans to let the call with results go to voicemail and listen with Phil when we were together. That plan went completely out the window when my phone rang. I answered and frantically paced around our house while the nurse gave me the news... 

Beta #1 29.3. Low. Too low.
The preferred minimum number at our clinic is 30. So, we were so close.. pregnant!.. but low - so many emotions. I kept (incessantly) telling myself in the days between Beta 1 and 2 that what would be would be.

Beta #2 34.
The level didn't double as it should and it was confirmed that this was a Chemical Pregnancy (fancy phrase for miscarriage)

Naturally, we took the news hard and I had a good cry (or four), but hung our hats on the fact that we have 7 beautiful frozen embryos. We're incredibly lucky that even though this first cycle didn't result in a viable pregnancy, it set us up for success in the future.

what's next?

Frozen Embryo Transfer!
It's a very similar process to the full IVF but sans egg retrieval.


sign on / sign off.

I'm signing off.. again. We'll be keeping things low key and super positive. Cross anything you can for us; fingers, eyes, toes.. everything.


Cheers,
AM