Transfer Day - Pregnant Until Proven Otherwise

Transfer day has come and gone, and frankly was far more anticlimactic than I had anticipated. I'm not really sure what I was expecting...a parade perhaps? With fireworks? ;) I guess less drama is better in a serious lab environment.

My appointment wasn't until 12:45 in the afternoon (torture, right?). To prevent myself from pacing for 4 hours, hubby and I decided to stop for breakfast on the way. My choice: IHOP...naturally. Considering I only go to the bathroom every 4 days or so since starting the meds, I figured maybe a plate of processed fluffy pancakes would inspire my intestines to get back in the groove of things. Ok, ok, I also just happened to be craving the cinna-stack and figured today would be a good excuse to eat it. Who can pass up cinnabon in pancake form? Dessert is my favorite kind of breakfast.

Have you ever tried to eat something really slow, when it's delicious and you're starving? Yea. So much for wasting time with breakfast haha. On to Plan B: walk around the mall. Clearly 11AM is prime shopping time on a weekday. Hardly anyone in the mall. Didn't make for very good people watching. We finished our lower and upper level lap in twenty minutes, popping into a store here or there. Then we gave up. Off to the hospital -- early!

My husband excitedly signed us in... "Hi, we're here to pick-up our baby". Walking comedy show this guy! I brought a 50 oz bottle of water with me, which I was to begin drinking upon arrival. You really only need to finish a standard 16 oz bottle, I just wanted to look cool.

I chugged about 1/3 of the bottle and then was called back to slip into something a little more comfortable, a mommy-to-be-moo-moo if you will. Once I was dressed for receiving my little one, the nurse checked my vitals and retrieved my hubby to entertain me while waiting for the embryo report card.

My bladder started to feel full, and then I remembered that the "procedure" involved a catheter going into my cervix and started to get anxious. All of the anxiety went away when my doctor showed up with a perfect report card for our little embie! Baby C was graded a 4AA embryo (highest quality). You can learn more about embryo grading from charts like this one.

Going into this process we knew we wanted to do a single embryo transfer, if the quality was very good. Fortunately, we had one perfect blast that had already started hatching, unassisted, so we agreed to only transfer one and hope for the best!

And with that, I was off to the operating room. After getting into position (spread eagle in the air), the speculum was put into place. I was presented with Baby C's first picture at this time, a perfect distraction from the fact that my ass and vagina were out on display under shining lights. Baby C made an appearance on the TV screen and I watched as the embryologist sucked it up into the catheter (weeee!). Little did I know, my doctor had already put a trial catheter into my cervix, and I didn't feel a thing! Two minutes later, baby was on board! The whole procedure took about ten minutes total.

Contrary to how I envisioned myself in the room, I did not cry. It's hard to explain exactly how I felt. I was so happy, I couldn't cry, not even happy tears. I think I was also in a slight state of shock...disbelief that this was really happening. Almost like an out of body experience.

After the transfer, I was wheeled into recovery where I remained horizontal for 20 minutes. I really had to pee, but wasn't willing to bed-pan-it-up, so I sucked-it-up instead. Hubby arrived soon after and I presented him Baby C's first picture! Some facilities allow the husband to be in the room during the transfer. It was a bit of a bummer that he couldn't join me, but I respect the labs decision. They are very strict about who and what enters the area and do not want to put any embryos at risk. Looks like he went deodorant free for no reason (sorry babe!). Smelly as we were, we were elated.

After twenty minutes of staring at my embie, I was allowed to get dressed and pee. I know the anatomy of my uterus, but I still just couldn't help but fear that my little blast would drop out of my vagina as I relieved myself lol.

And just like that, the hard work was over and the waiting game began.

I refuse to test before my beta, so I plan to spend this time in a PUPO state of mind.

"Pregnant until proven otherwise" :)