Monday, February 11, 2019

Transfer Day and the 9 Day Wait

So after all that prepping on January 7th it was finally transfer day!

Our appointment wasn't until 2:30 in the afternoon and I didn't have the same no eating restrictions you have during a retrieval so I just slept in, tried to relax and ate an early lunch before we had to drive to San Ramon. 

Right before we left at 12:30 I had to empty my bladder and then drink 24 oz of water over the next 2 hours so that I would have a full bladder for the procedure.  Having a super full bladder wasn't fun but it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. As usual I made us leave extra early in case there was traffic so we got there plenty early.  
We got all checked in and situated in the waiting room and tried to think calm and happy thoughts. At 2 PM I took a Valium so that it would have time to take effect before the procedure.  I knew it could make me sleepy so I was a little worried because medicine that say may make you drowsy often make me very drowsy.  I didn't feel sleepy (might have been the excitement) but I did feel more relaxed after taking it.
A little while later we got taken into the transfer room and it got all situated on the table/bed thing with a warm blanket and everything.  The ultrasound tech came in to check and make sure my bladder was full enough and what do you know it was too full.  Trying to partially empty your bladder is not fun or easy but I managed to get it to an acceptable fullness.


Once I was all ready the doctor came in and explained to us what was about to happen and what to expect.  I had to show my ID again and sign a bunch of paperwork and then to doctor gave us the first picture of our baby.  The picture was taken after they defrosted the embryo at about 11 AM so by the time we got there the embryo had defrosted even more.

Before they brought the embryo into the room for transfer we got to see it live under a microscope projected onto a screen in the room.  You can see that even in the 3 hours since the picture was taken that the embryo had grown and was even busting out of its shell a bit already. We were told these were good signs so we were happy about that.


The actual transfer is kind of a combination between a pap smear and an ultrasound.  They put a little tube in and watch on the ultrasound screen to see where to place it.  There is a little puff of air in the tube to push the embryo out so it you watch very closely you can see the puff of air on the screen as a little white dot for just a split second showing that the embryo was transferred.


Once the transfer was done I laid in the room for a while before I got dressed and headed home.  I spent the rest of the day on the couch or in bed just resting.  I was allowed to go back to regular activities the next day but I decided to work from home anyway just to be extra cautious. 

The embryo was 5 days old when we did the transfer and a pregnancy test works 2 weeks after conception so I only had to wait 9 days to go get the blood work done to find out if the transfer was a success.  Those 9 days were so long but I tried to stay busy.  People asked me if I felt pregnant but I kept telling them that I didn't know because I had never been pregnant so I didn't know what it felt like and most of the medicine I was taking have side effects very similar to those of early pregnancy so even the symptoms I did feel were just as likely to be from the medication as from pregnancy.

First thing in the morning on January 16th I went and had blood drawn and then waited through what felt like the longest morning ever for the doctor to call with the result.  


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