Transfer Done!

Finn and I have had the most wonderful weekend.  We weren't alone in Atlanta - we had 6 other SMCs and their children here to keep us company.  A few years ago a group of us met online, and have stayed in contact, giving each other support and encouragement.  Three of us have been to RBA already to get our babies, and then there are 3 of us (out of 17 total) who are in the process of donor eggs at RBA, and we all have our transfer dates within 2 weeks of each other.  This seemed like the perfect excuse to finally meet as a group; while we missed the other 10, we had a wonderful time! It was especially fun seeing all our children interact, and I'm really looking forward to seeing them all together in another 2-3 years.

My transfer this morning was at 9am.  My doctor wasn't on call today, but since he's the doctor for the entire Single Sister Sextuplet, he decided he'd come in on his day off and do my transfer.  S and her 6 month old son B (an RBA baby) came with us, while another of the moms watched Finn.  It was great having them there to keep me distracted from both my nerves and my full bladder!

Back in the transfer room, I changed out of my pants and flip flops and into my lucky socks. The tech confirmed that my bladder was appropriately full and then the embryologist opened the door to the sounds of Abba coming in from the lab, which made me giggle.  I was shown the beautiful picture of the embryo they were about to transfer and then given the full report: of the 5 eggs that fertilized, I have 2 Grade A, fully expanded blastocysts, 1 early blastocyst, 1 morula, and one that arrested after fertilization.  We transfered one of the blastocysts and froze the other, while the other two are being watched and will be frozen if they continue developing.  I'm scheduled for a serum beta on 6/5 - less than two weeks away!

Lucky socks

The transfer itself was a lot like an IUI, except less crampy feelings during and after.  And instead of 20 minutes on the table listening to soft music, I was up and getting dressed after 5 minutes.  I was told I don't need to do strict bedrest, but should take it easy, and avoid "repetitive heavy lifting."  For the first few hours I walked around on eggshells, but after the 20th time my 30 pound toddler wanted to be picked up, I gave up.  Dr. S did tell me that in his opinion I could probably "sky dive into a tank of sharks" the day of transfer and it wouldn't affect my chances of getting pregnant.  He also told me that I had a cervix that looked like a teenager's.  I might have blushed at that.

I'm finding it a little hard to really wrap my mind around the fact that I might be pregnant.  It's all been a little surreal the past few weeks, especially since there's just not much involved with preparing for just an embryo transfer.  I felt a little funny with both the Lupron and the steroids, but no major symptoms like bloating and cramping like I had with stims; it's all so low key, and almost too simple to be something that will actually result in a baby.  I am excited, though, and starting to feel optimistic that this might just work.

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We all went to brunch as a group before the of us had to leave, and then a couple of us headed back to my room for a little quiet time. We were joined by a former blogger who came and brought her adorable 17 month old son for a short visit - oh he was so cute!  It was lovely to finally meet her, though I wish we could have had a longer visit.

Before transfer day we had all had fun at the aquarium (which I do NOT recommend to anyone on a holiday weekend, ever.  Ever.) the zoo, on a picnic and just hanging out.  This is my (second) favorite picture from this weekend - we were in the room watching the huge tank and had decided to walk back up to the top of the viewing area from our spot right in front of the glass.  Then Finn decided he wanted to go back down to the glass.  He got down there, went up to the glass where the giant fish he'd been "talking" to earlier was, leaned in, kissed the glass, said "Love you, see you later!" and then headed back up the stairs.