hurry up & wait

I thought I would have been a nervous wreck the night before and day of my transfer, but I have had felt calm and at peace. I slept soundly and woke up feeling refreshed. When I went downstairs to take my meds, I saw a card and jewelry box from my wonderful husband. Inside was a GORGEOUS diamond heart necklace for "good luck" to take me through the transfer and these next few weeks (or months if it's in God's will....). Of course I started crying even before I read his kind words or saw the necklace - again, he is so good to me and I couldn't have asked for a better husband!

Here is a close up of the beautiful necklace!

I was a little nervous on the way to the surgery center because my doctor had a family emergency and wasn't able to do the transfer, but I know that the other doctors are very competent and would do just as amazingly as Dr. Haddad. We met with the new doctor for a few minutes (he did one of my hysteroscopies so I felt comfortable with him) and he told us that only 3 out of the 18 fertilized embryos were genetically good. While it was a bit disappointing for us to have such a low number, it ended up being such a blessing and an affirmation that we were doing the right thing. We were told that about 2/3 would be bad but were definitely surprised when it ended up being much more severe (5/6 bad). Looking back, I am so grateful I pushed for all the tests over the past year and that we waited until we knew things were safe before trying to get pregnant. I was encouraged that these measures helped spare us multiple miscarriages and disappointment. We have definitely been blessed by all the medical advances and are beyond grateful for all the specialists in this city who have helped get us to this point! We can only hope that things keep progressing as they're supposed to.

We ended up not finding out the genders of the implanted embryos. When the doctor told us there were only 3, he asked if we wanted to put in 2 and freeze the remaining one, but since Dr. Haddad had always planned on implanting 3, we decided put them all in (which means that if none of them take and we wanted to do it again, we'd have to start the whole IVF process over from the beginning). However, the doctor had said that if we choose to put 2 in, he'd have us choose which genders to implant - leading us to believe that there were at least one of each gender. At least there will still be some surprise elements in this journey (how many take, what genders, etc). When we made the final decision to put all 3 in, the doctor also told us that he had to legally warn us of the possibility of having higher order multiples and asked if we would be interested in reducing the number, should that happen. Our decision is to keep all embryos that develop - even if they split. The doctor told us that since 2 of the embryos had already "hatched" (medical term) they would most likely not be able to split; however one hasn't yet and statistically speaking the final one COULD split, technicallly producing 4 embryos. This is very unlikely but still a possibility. He of course warned us of the health risks on myself as well as the babies, but we feel that even with the financial, physical, and emotional strain, God wouldn't give us something we can't handle.

During the transfer, Kris was able to come into the surgery room with me. I was completely awake and we were able to see the embryos being placed in my uterus (via ultrasound). All the nurses were impressed with how "textbook-looking" my uterus was and said that it was the nicest they'd every seen (how sweet!). We were given pictures of all 3 embryos as well as a picture of them placed in my uterus. I wasn't in much pain, but it definitely was a strange feeling thinking that I have embryos inside and could possibly be pregnant!

After the transfer I had to lay with my feet slightly raised, for 30ish minutes, then after all my vitals were good, they sent me on my way! Here I am in the recovery area with my pictures (& probably feeling good with the Valium finally kicking in .. I was laughing at all of Kris' jokes, so I know I was feeling the meds!) :)

Our next step is to just wait... I'm on bedrest the next few days (I'm not even supposed to shower or bathe, so I'll have to get comfortable with sponge baths! ewwwww!). I have a blood work appt on Monday and will let you know how it goes after that! We won't know if we're officially pregnant or not for about 2 weeks and won't know how many (if any) embryos took. Continue to keep us in your prayers. We are so grateful for all our family & friends who are genuinely happy and supportive of us - we hope to have good news to share in a few weeks, but know that you will be there to support us if our news isn't as positive. Love you to all! XOXO