IVF for baby #2 Update

Soooo quick update on my whole “make a baby” situation... I’m sitting here on pins and needles (literally 🤣) so I just have to share in the excitement. Plus, the science is interesting. 🤓

Our first kiddo was conceived via IVF 2 years ago in 2016 and now that he’s 1 yr old we jumped on the IVF train again.

Wednesday was my egg retrieval. It was pretty painful (still in discomfort today) because they pulled out a whopping 26 eggs... Last time they only got 15 so whew! Exciting numbers already.

Thursday we got the update on maturity and fertilization. They weren’t super impressed with the maturity of the eggs. (Think of that cheezits commercial... well, my eggs are still cracking jokes)... so they decided to go a non-traditional route for attempting to couple the sperm and the egg. 

26 eggs total--> 18 went to conventional coupling and 8 went to ICSI where they put the sperm IN THE EGG and see if it takes. Of the 8 that they thought were good candidates for ICSI, 5 were mature. Of the 5, 4 fertilized. Of the 18 that went to conventional coupling, most were immature... that's why they put them in conventional coupling because it gave them an extra day to mature slightly before the sperm got em.... of those, 4 fertilized! So as of yesterday, we have 8 fertilized eggs total! Last time at this point we had 5 eggs. So again, good numbers!

So as of Thursday, it’s still unknown if we are going to transfer on Day 3 (Saturday) or Day 5 (Monday). Day 3 means there are 1-2 standout embryos that practically already look like a baby (just kidding...), but really it just means they are grading really well in size and growth. We’re talking B+ to A range. If there aren’t any stand out embryos, then we wait til Day 5 to do the transfer so the eggs have more time to develop before picking out the ones that have the best luck becoming babies. Some science points to the uterus being a better incubator than a Petri dish (duh!), so we were hoping for day 3. Plus, that was what we knew from before with Weston.

So here we are, Friday afternoon at 4pm... I just got the big call. We are waiting until day 5 (Monday) to do the transfer. There just aren't 2 standout embryos among the group... of the 8 fertilized we started with, 7 of them are all in the B- to B+ range. Really hoping they do some good work over the weekend to become A range. With Weston we put in 2 embryos (A- and B+) on day 3 and our other 3 opportunities out of the 5 that fertilized did not make it to day 5. Soooo good news is we have 7 opportunities left still! Really hoping one or more of them kick it into high gear this weekend. At the very least, stay in the B range!

So moral of the story, hug your babies close! With or without IVF or IUI or clomid or whatever, your baby went through a LOT of competition before getting into your womb. And my goodness, the female body is FASCINATING. We are freaking warriors.

P.S. soooo. many. shots.