We have embryos!

We got the call this morning about how many eggs fertilized.  We started with 17; 16 were good and mixed in with the sperm.  And only one didn’t fertilize! So we have 15 little embryos trying to grow their way into this world!  We are super excited. It’s a huge weight off of my shoulders.  I don’t know why I have to think so negatively, but I was just sure that none of them would fertilize, that we should have done ICSI (where they inject the sperm into the egg), that this was a big waste of money and time and effort.  I guess I’ve just had such bad luck in the last year when it comes to medical issues that I keep expecting the worse so when it doesn’t happen I’m that much happier. I don’t know.  We will get another update on Monday about how many of our embryos are still developing. Here’s to hoping we don’t lose too many. They will also give me a time frame for our transfer on Wednesday.  Oh my gosh this is getting real!

In preparation for transfer, I have to take more hormones. Yay. My favorite so far is the estrogen; mainly because it is just a patch! Haha that’s right! Three patches twice a week. Couldn’t be easier.  The progesterone has been looming over me and Spencer for a while now.  The subcutaneous shots were hard enough to do on my own, I don’t know how I could do an intramuscular (IM) shot on myself.  The doctor prescribed the progesterone in oil, which is given intramuscular. It’s better than the suppositories, but I have been dreading that one and half inch needle for weeks.  I think Spencer has too.  We watched the video on how to give the IM shot and then got everything ready to go.  It took us a while to figure out exactly where the shot goes, but we were finally confident that we figured out exactly which part of my hip to use (FYI, it’s right around my muffin top).  I laid on the bed and was practicing my deep breathing since I was so nervous.  Spencer was nervous too, but powered through like a boss. He found the spot on my hip, cleaned it with alcohol, spread the skin apart, and darted the needle in.  To me it felt like he was barely putting the needle against my skin, like he was testing where to do it.  Turns out, I didn’t feel the shot at all. Nor did I feel any of the medicine going in.  He pulled out the needle, put some gauze on the spot and I laid on the heating pad for a few minutes to disperse the oil.  So in the end, all that worry for nothing.  I’m really proud of Spencer for doing such a great job. I’m sure we won’t get it perfect every night, but at least I’m not as afraid of the IM shot anymore.  I think we could actually do this every night for the next 6 weeks or so (fingers crossed!).

Shot time!