The Waiting Game

That was crazy cool!!!

We headed out to Vancouver, but made a pitstop at the Denny's across the street for some breakfast before our appointment.   Their skillet breakfasts are pretty amazing!!!  After breakfast, we checked in at Genesis and after a few minutes the nurse came and got us from the waiting room and took us to the cubicle where I could change in to a gown and they'd go over some of the information.  We were told that they were transferring a "day five embryo, grade 4AA" and that two had already been frozen and there were nine more remaining in culture to see how they grow.  We should hopefully get a call tomorrow that there are more embryos good enough to freeze, but it's relieving knowing that we do have at least a couple as a back-up (although I just really hope that this cycle works for us!).  

After a few minutes of waiting and listening to the excited chatter coming from a few of the other cubicles, another nurse came to bring us to the procedure meditation room.  I didn't feel quite so stressed out this time, but I was still nervous.  It was such a strange feeling to know that within the next few minutes someone was going to put an embryo into my uterus!  

Dr. Kashyap came in, wearing her pretty pink scrubs as usual.  Pink really is her color!  She handed us a picture of the embryo that they were going to transfer, and that was awesome.  I think that's the moment that Lance got a little choked up.  I tossed my legs up in them stirrups and eagerly waited for it all to happen.  

The embryologist came in and verified my name and date of birth, etc, then explained a little about his role, then he ran back off to the room behind us.  We could see what he was doing on the big screen, and I'm not gonna lie... It was one of those "hold my breath moments".  You could see him sucking the embryo up into the catheter, then he came back in the room and handed it to the Dr.  

I made everyone in the room jump when she put the ultrasound probe in... Her actions were just a little faster than her words and she hadn't quite got out the "you'll feel something cold" when I got prodded in the girl-bits.  I jumped a mile high as I just really wasn't expecting it, then we all had a good laugh and got down to business.  

We watched on the ultrasound monitor with excitement as Dr. Kashyap explained what she was seeing and told us to watch for the shooting star.  Moments later she released the embryo and you actually saw a little ball of light leave the tip of the catheter and float around for a few seconds before disappearing.  It's such a weird thing to see, and really makes you feel very honored to see the first few seconds of what will so hopefully become a new life.  It really did glow!  

I waited around for a few minutes with my legs up in the air and the Dr with the probe in my uterus, while the embryologist carefully checked the catheter under the microscope to make sure that the transfer did happen, even though everyone was quite confident that it had happened.  

So now we have our very first picture of what we hope will become our baby.  In one word... Amazing!  

I got dressed and Lance and I left, feeling a little giggly and excited about the next leg of our journey, while noting that the unfortunate could still happen.  We just have to stay positive.  March 11th will be the first beta-HCG pregnancy test... That's gonna feel like forever away, but I'm taking it easy and trying to eat healthier.  

It's just weird to think of all the crazy stuff that is going on inside that old uterus of mine.  I read way too much information on the process of fertilization and implantation, and am totally on information overload!  Love it!!!