The Eggs Will Come Out...TOMORROW! - Molly

my favorite musical!

Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, we'll retrieve eggs! Tomorrow, tomorrow, Jason will fertilize, tomorrow. It's only a day away!

On Saturday night at 11pm, Jason injected me with an HCG shot (in my hip) to trigger ovulation. The clock is set for 36 hours, making my appointment for retrieval on Monday morning at 10am. 

my drug box - nice and full

he's a bit excited to stab me

bullseye on the hip

thought this would be a bit dramatic

"I need to stick it ALL the way in? YES."

 I will arrive at 9am. Jason will "donate" at 10am.

I think I am most excited to be "put under". I don't know really why, but I am looking forward to it. Jason will then bring me home around noon and keep an eye on me for the next few days. Lucky Penny gets to go to the mountains to play with her friends in the snow. 

We will know how many eggs they extract before I leave the clinic. So I will give a full report once I wake up enough to blog. 

Once the eggs are retrieved, using the method of ICSI, they will put one sperm in each on my eggs to fertilize. They will then let them grow for 3 days. They will be graded and if all is well, they will grow another 2 days (total of 5 days). After this point they are called a blastocyst. Only embryos that make it to this blastocyst stage will be genetically tested. They will then call and tell us how many embryos are moving forward. Those that are chosen, will have 4-5 cells removed and tested for genetic issues. After about 2 weeks, we will be notified of the genetic results and how many "perfectly genetic" embryos we have to transfer.

But they don't go back in me yet. While we wait for results, I will suppress my body of all stimulant drugs, regain a period and then rebuild my uterine lining back up again by taking estrogen and progesterone (more injections) for a few weeks. Then they will determine my transfer date. 

Transfer should occur 6-8 weeks AFTER retrieval date. Once transfer occurs, I will be DOWN again for at least a week. At this point, we can determine whether or not I am pregnant. IF I am, I will be monitored until I am through my first trimester. Then I will be transferred to my specialized OB until delivery.

Here are the  probable stats:

Retrieval Date: 2/6/12

Transfer Date: 3/20-4/3 (somewhere in between)

Delivery/Due Date: 12/2-12/18 (somewhere in between, unless it's twins!)

So how am I feeling:

Like I have a bag of marbles in my belly. I am constantly thirsty. My belly is tight and uncomfortable, it hurts to wear anything but my yoga pants. Headaches are gone, but now my hip aches from the shot. I am a bit anxious for the retrieval. I am hoping for at least 10 eggs. (They have counted 10-12 optimal size ones plus some smaller ones). I have a ton of cervical mucus right now which is just gross. I ate some queso tonight and now I am regretting it. I am looking forward to one more early morning blood draw and NO ultrasound, the thought of being probed right now makes my insides ache.

We are one step closer to hopefully having a baby.