Unbelievable!

More good news this morning - ALL NINE of our "maybe-babies" are now (in the words of the embryologist) "beautiful, compacting, textbook perfect 8 cell embryos"! This is very surprising to me, as in past cycles, we have had only one 8-cell embryo on day 3. It makes me wonder if the lab and embryologist at Carolina Conceptions (Dr. Couchman's new clinic) is better than the one at Duke? Along those lines, I have to say that my experience at this new clinic has been nothing but wonderful. I have always loved my Dr., but now it seems that everyone who she works with is equally caring and sensitive. I am confident I made the right choice in making the move. Even if this cycle doesn't result in a pregnancy, I feel so much better psychologically than I have in the past- mainly because I feel as though I have an entire team pulling for me and determined to get me pregnant one way or the other. I have to remind myself of how incredibly, ridiculously fortunate I am to have all of this covered by my insurance as well. It helps me to maintain a balanced, healthy perspective- if it doesn't work this time, there will be other chances for us. There is no way I would be saying this if I knew that each attempt was costing us (gulp!) 12k. We all need to get out there and advocate for states to enact mandated fertility covereage, as they have in MA. Does it not seem ridiculous that most plans cover Viagra and not infertility treatment??

So why the big hoopla about making it to a five-day transfer? Here's a little blurb that explains the science behind it:

"The rational behind a blastocyst transfer is that an embryo which has failed to reach the blastocyst stage, would be unlikely to have resulted in a pregnancy. However, if it reaches the blastocyst stage it has about 50% chance of implanting. So the improved implantation rates following blastocyst transfer is due to selection of the best embryos."

With nine 8-cell embryos, I think the chances of us having two good-quality blasts to transfer on Tuesday are excellent, and we may even be able to freeze a few "maybe babies" for future attempts.

For now, I am doing my best to relax and tolerate all the uncomfortable bloating I am experiencing, which will most likely get worse before it gets better. The good news is that I have finally found a flavor of Gatorade that I can tolerate- lemonade. It's not bad. My guess is that I will be living on it for the next few weeks or so.

PS: The photo is of an 8-cell, compacting embryo - like ours!