Happy Valentines Day

We got the call this morning from the embryologist that of the 12 eggs retrieved, 9 were mature and as of this morning there are 6 embryos properly splitting. Six is a great number and the one I hoped for last night. Last night felt so much like Christmas eve as a seven year old, only back then I never really worried about Santa bringing me coal. Six embryos is the equivalent of recieving the Barbie jeep that I always wanted. (-and never got. Still a tiny bit bitter on that one Mom.)

I will have a day 5 transfer which means that the embryos are strong enough and in high enough number that the lab thinks it is best to let the embies continue to weed themselves out, hopefully giving us a better indication of the top contenders to go into the womb. So basically more may die, or fail to thrive between now and Wednesday. We will get our next phone call on Tuesday to give us the revised count and appointment for the transfer.

As with everything in life, I want to have options but am easily overwhelmed knowing that the choices I have are my responsibility. I am grateful to be in the position to freeze some embryos, but this also means we will have to decide whether to implant one or two.

Right now our doctor's office is participating in a statewide study to investigate if single embryo transfers can be as successful as dual embryo transfers. Medically, doctors consider multiple pregnancies to be undesirable because of inherent risks involved when adding just one more baby to the mix. We have signed the consent form to participate in the single embryo transfer, but we can opt out if we wish. If you participate, only one embie is implanted, and the remainders are frozen free of cost, and the cost of the next frozen round (about $4000) is free - whether you have a baby or not on the first go-around. You have 3 years to do the frozen round free of cost. We are still unsure if we want to implant one or two. The count on Tuesday will help in making that decision. I am quite torn between my fear of complications of a twin pregnancy, and my adoration of fraternal twins. This decision is a scary one for me. I feel that if something went wrong with the multiple babies, I would never get beyond knowing it was my "fault" for getting greedy. On the other hand, if one embryo does not implant, I will wonder if an additional embryo would have resulted in a pregnancy. And I will worry that perhaps I played it too safe and let $$ dictate my choice. So much to think about between now and Tuesday, and yet I just want time to fly.