From the start of this whole journey, Tyker and I had both had the idea of transferring two embryos. We just felt like why not, I mean, we're going through this whole process... Why not give ourselves the best chance possible. And we didn't mind the idea of having twins. Well throughout the whole process, this decision that we felt so confident about swayed back and forth from "Theres no way that we can do two", to "Maybe we do do two." Tyker started thinking about the financial aspect of it all. He talked to me one day about how could we afford twins, and what happens if I end up not being able to work, will we be able to afford our house. There were so many concerns going through his head, and I felt them too! My thoughts on if to do two or one were different though. I was so worried about the egg quality that we would have, if we would get any embryos at all, and if we would have any to freeze.
When we went in for our retrieval, my doctor had told me that I had done everything I could do at that point, that my job was done. She then told us that she was expecting to get 4 embryos from me. This was like a huge slap in the face... I remember thinking to myself, "out of all of the follicles that are ready to harvest... I'm going to get 4. I don't mean to sound ungrateful for the 4 that she expected, because it only takes one to make a baby, but I was so discouraged. There was no guarantee that any of those 4 would be viable embryo's, and I focused on that. We went through with the transfer and got 15 follicles retrieved. So then again I'm thinking... out of 15, we're going to get 4 that will fertilize properly? That day they combined the eggs retrieved with Tyker's sperm, and the waiting began. How it works is you do your retrieval and then you go home. The next day the clinic calls you with a fertilization report on your eggs, and then you don't hear anything for two days until you go in for your transfer. On our day three report, we ended up getting pretty good news! They want to see the embryos have between 6-8 cells by this day. We had 9 eggs out of our 15 that had progressed and began to fertilize and develop cells. Out of the 9, we had 1-5 cell, 1-6 cell, 4-7 cells, 3-8 cells. We were stoked with the news and it was such a relief that we had some babies in the making! By day 3 after retrieval, I was super nervous to find out the embryo quality report. At this point, I knew that we had eggs that fertilized but what if they aren't good enough quality to attach and create a baby? Yes, I know, I worry about every little thing, but thats just how I work.
Transfer day came and Dr. G came in to the room with our embryo report. She told us that we had 4 embryos that looked just about perfect, and three other embryos that were trying to catch up. She then asked us if we had decided if we were going to transfer 1 or 2. 2 is the max amount that she told us that she would transfer. I told her that we thought we knew but now we're not sure. Dr. G then began to going into the differences between transferring 1 verses 2. She told us that if we transferred 1 that we would have a 60% chance of pregnancy. She told us that our chances of miscarriage were this amount, which was lower than 10% i think. She talked about pregnancy complications, and risks to baby and momma. She then told us that if we decided to transfer 2 embryos that we would have a 70% chance of pregnancy, 50% chance of twins, and a 5% chance of triplets. She talked about all of the same risks and complication possibilities. With each of them, the percentages of risk went up about 10%. Dr. G then told us she would give us a few minutes to talk about it, and her and my mom left the room. Tyk and I started discussing each possibility. He told me at this point that he wasn't worried about finances with twins, that we would work it out and its not something we should stress about now. We talked about what if we transfer 1 and it doesn't take, and the same thing even with transferring 2. We talked about the risks of each. This was the scariest part. We have already been through a miscarriage, and other complications with have a D & C. Did we really want to increase the risk of all of that happening again? We talked about transferring 2 and possibly having Premies and the challenges that our sweet babies would have to overcome. And we talked about the percentages of becoming pregnant with each option. I finally asked Tyk... "What are you feeling, what do you think we should do?' He said "I feel like we should do two." I then told him that I felt the same way. We talked about how we have come this far and gone through all of the shots, appointments, expenses, stress, tears, why wouldn't we give ourselves the highest chance possible for pregnancy, and we are willing to take any miracle that Heavenly Father has in store for us. My Mom came back into the room and I told her we had made our decision, and then asked her what her opinion was. She said the same thing, after all of this I would want to give myself the best chance possible. Then Dr. G came back into the room with a big smile on her face. She said "So what did you decide." I told her we had decided to do 2 and asked her if she thought we were crazy. I remember her saying "Oh no! I think that is great. Have you seen our hall of fame, we do 2 all the time. I didn't give you the option to do 3, this when its crazy, and nothing good can come from that." I LOVED this answer, she said exactly what I needed.
This decision was super stressful and scary for both Tyk and I. This was our potential future that we had to decide right then and there. We both felt like it was the right thing to do, and the rest was up to God in if we were going to be blessed with 1,2,3, possibly even 4 little babies or no babies at all. We did the transfer and Dr. G was sure to ensure me that the embryos were right where they needed to be and that they couldn't fall out. HA! I though that was great news.... you never know what could happen.
The rest of our embryos were able to be frozen, and the our three that were tagging along were part of the freeze! We have a total of 5 embryos that are waiting for us for a later time. We are so grateful and blessed to have had our very first round of In Vitro Fertilization work for us. 4 in 10 cases take the first IVF cycle resulting in a pregnancy. I don't even have words to describe how grateful I am to be within that 4... Thank you, thank you, thank you, for all of your prayers that have been sent our way through this process. We love you!
Another update from our first ultrasound will be coming TOMORROW!!!! Stay tuned for the update.
Thanks for reading!
Love,
Shandee
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