All Aboard

Transfer went swimmingly yesterday and I now have two grade 1 embryos aboard. When the eggs are fertilised they are monitored for how they develop and divide and they judge the grade depending on how clear the cells are and how much they fragment. Fragmentation isn't good and the grades go from 1 down to 4, so grade 1 is good. In saying that the embryos are only 4-cells at the moment so there is still a long way to go. Just because they are grade 1 at the moment isn't an indicator of their potential later on. But it helps!

For embryo transfer both Rob and I have to get done up in surgical robes and get taken into the theatre where the embryologist tells us about what has happened. We've been incredibly lucky this time as all 10 had fertilised and of those ten, two were transferred to me and six (all grade 1's) were frozen which left one which had fragmented too much and another which was a slow-developer and so they were going to keep an eye on it and maybe freeze it later. She told us that normally around 12% of eggs are frozen so we got 60% which is just amazing. I'm sure the Zita Wests must have made a difference as both of us have been taking them.

So we saw our two little bundles of cells on the big screen and then it was all go. Mr Rafla did the transfer which is strange as I don't know him. My consultant is Mr Evans but depending on the schedule you sometimes get one of the other consultants. But Sarah, our nurse was there and it was very different to last time. This time they used ultrasound on my tummy to see what they were doing. It was rather uncomfortable with her pressing hard on my ovaries whilst Mr R was doing stuff in unmentionable places - it's not the most glamorous procedure I can tell you!!

But they're in! And I'm hoping and praying that they carry on dividing and behaving like grade 1 embryos and will be getting ready to implant in 3-4 days time.

It's a strange feeling knowing that you have these embryos inside you. When I saw them on the screen I got a bit emotional, the first time I have this cycle. I think now is the crunch time when you begin to really think about what has happened and what could be. Each cycle has around a 30% chance of success and although the odds are low the dreaming begins.