{FET Cycle: Embryo Growth}

I was about to just write about the day of the transfer and then I realized that I have to write about our babies first!

The last time I posted about our babies was when we found out that we have 12 embryos frozen after the retrieval. At that time they were 1-day old embryos.

As the time got closer for the embryo transfer while I was starting the progesterone shots, Dr Guerrero took our twelve little ones and thawed them out, put them in an incubator and monitored their progress and growth for 4 days. They discussed with us when we originally froze them that they would need to be thawed and then allowed to grow but that during that time only a few of them would thrive and continue to grow and be viable for a transfer. The estimated rate of survival is about 40% but that's a very rough estimate and everyone's embryos are different. 

During those days he to give me updates. (Can I just say, that I love that he does that?! I'm guessing that's what other offices do as well. But I loved hearing from him!)  Two days before the transfer he called to let me know that all had gone well with the thawing and that we had lost one embryo. It had never developed past the day-1 stage. By then they should have 6-8 cells each. 2 of the other 11 were a little behind. They had only 4 cells but he'd continue to monitor them. There were 9 that were at the proper state, with 6-8 cells each. So he would let us know on the transfer day how they were doing.

I asked him a few more questions at that time. I found out that within the next 3 days (they allow remaining embryos to develop 24 hours past the day that the strongest one is transfered into my body), they would grow from 8 cells up to 90-150 cells!!! He said that the first couple days is slow and just a couple cells grow per day but then days 4-6 are exponential in their growth. So cool! :)

I'll go ahead and update the embryo development we had on and after transfer day here in this post so we can keep it all together....

The day of the transfer, we had 5 that were still looking really good, including the one they transferred. The one they used for the transfer was the strongest best looking embryo. :) Dr. Guerrero printed and gave us a picture of the embryo he was transferring that day- it was absolutely beautiful. I have it framed and on my dresser to this day. :)

Like I said, he let the remaining 4 grow for another 24 hours after the transfer. He called at that time and let us know that 2 of those four looked great and met all the qualifications for re-freezing. Luckily, because they're so strict on what they freeze, they give them a 90% chance of survival with the freezing/thawing. (That doesn't mean 90% chance of pregnancy though. Please don't get that confused.) But we're happy about that.

It's hard knowing we had so many to begin with and that we lost 9. But those stats are just a little behind a normal couple trying to get pregnant. They say it takes 6-9 months for a normal couple to get pregnant, which means she had 6-9 eggs and possible embryos that didn't make it before their one actually resulted in pregnancy.

But again, numbers are not fun and they were all ours; our little creations. But the Lord knows what's going on and He is ultimately in control. We know we'll get our babies at the right time in the right way. 

So, this process is just completely amazing. As hard as it is to go through, physically and emotionally, it's so rewarding to see what amazing things we can do now with modern medicine and technology and wonderful smart people willing to help couples like us have the chance at becoming mothers and fathers. We love everyone at our doctors office and feel so blessed to be close enough to go to them!