I can't believe it is already time for another update! Time is seriously going by so fast.  I am glad that is the case because I do think it is much better for my sanity than the alternative!!!

As I told you in my previous post, Day 1 post egg retrieval showed that we had 6 fertilized eggs! The doctor's office told us that we would be getting a call each day with a report on how they were progressing. The embryologist (who knew such a person even existed?) uses a grading system of poor, fair, good, excellent/good and excellent.  They also are very concerned with how many cells each one has each day. Before I give you the numbers, I want to share a few pictures that I think are very helpful in understanding the different stages in embryo development. I know all of this information I've been giving you guys over the past few weeks is super in depth and foreign and mind boggling.  It is for me, too!  Pictures do seem to make it all a little easier to understand. 

So basically, there are 3 categories that the embryo can go through during IVF as I understand it.... and they are zygote, morula and blastocyst.  Obviously for us these changes are taking place in a petri dish, rather than in my body.  

Yesterday morning we got a call from the nurse to give us the Day 2 report. Here is how our embryos were looking at that time...

1- 4 cell excellent/good
1- 4 cell good
2- 3 cell excellent
1- 2 cell excellent
1- 1 cell good

Because all of the embryos were 4 cells or less, they were still all in the zygote stage.  This is normal and expected at Day 2.  The nurse really wouldn't tell us much as far as if this was good or bad or normal. Apparently they don't like to say too much because things can change quickly.  She did tell us that is is reassuring that none of them were graded fair or poor and that they were all still alive and most of them were dividing and growing.  At that time, they couldn't tell us for sure if we were going to need to do a Day 3 transfer or if we'd be able to wait until Day 5.  Our embryos were on the fence, meaning they could be a little better, but they could also be a lot worse. They advised us to be up and ready to go the next morning and they would call us at 8 a.m. this morning to let us know if we needed to head to Little Rock to do the transfer.  So then it was time to wait another 24 hours for the next report. 

Today is Day 3.  Needless to say, Corey and I were up, showered, dressed, ready and practically staring at my phone when it finally started ringing.  It was Dr. Batres calling to give us our Day 3 report:

2- 8 cell excellent
1- 6 cell excellent
1- 6 cell good
1- 4 cell good
1- 3 cell good

Ok, sounds like a pretty good report... "so what do you want us to do," we ask?  "Well, it's up to you," he says.  Uhhh, totally didn't see that coming! I fully planned on him telling us what we were going to do! But instead, he left the decision to us.  He said we could transfer the two 8 cell excellent embryos today (Day 3) and that there would be a 40-50% chance of success.  They would then continue to watch the remaining embryos for a few days and any that made it to day 5 and were still in excellent condition could be frozen.  The perk of doing that is knowing that we have 2 embryos we could transfer today, they just aren't quite as far along in their development, which means the success rate is a little lower. He also said we would be guessing which ones are the best.  Right now, the top 2 look the best, but one of the other ones may end up being the best.  Until they reach are further developed, it is pretty much impossible to determine. 

The other option is to just let them be and see what happens between now and Sunday. Hopefully they would continue to develop from zygotes into morulas or even blastocysts (See pictures above).  He said there is a very very small chance that none of them will survive, but that he and the embryologist both feel pretty confident that we will have at least 1 good, healthy embryo on Sunday, otherwise they would not even give us the option to wait. We may even have more.... there is just no way to know! Transferring 1 emrbyo on Day 5 raises the success rate to 50-55% and transferring 2 on Day 5 raises it to 60%.  So basically, the success rate is higher on Day 5 than on Day 3 no matter how you look at it.  The biggest downfall is that you could end up with none if you wait.  

We got off the phone so we could discuss our options and make a decision before calling him back. It was a tough decision to make because really....it is ALL out of our control.  If we do it today, there is no guarantee that they will take.  If we do it Sunday, there is no guarantee that they will take. So our conclusion was that we needed to take a leap of faith.  We've known all along that God is in control of every single detail of this process, so why would we try and take the reigns now?  If He wants us to have an embryo or two to transfer on Sunday, then He will nourish and protect them so that it will happen.  If He wants us to have a baby at this time, we will have a baby dang it!!   He is not limited by statistics or probabilites or science.  When you are going through this, it is easy to get sucked in to all of that and lose sight of the fact that He is the God of the impossible, the unlikely and the seemingly hopeless.  He will come through for us, and if He doesn't... it is because it was never His plan for us to have a baby to begin with.  There is a reason we've gone through 4 years of infertility and through IVF...and it goes so far beyond having a baby in our arms.  I don't know what it is yet, but I know its a good one.  

So Day 5 it is.  I'd be lying to you if I told you we are not a little nervous, but we are far more excited and peaceful.  We will not be getting a call tomorrow because once the decision is made to wait until Day 5, the embryos are placed in a new media (solution) and back into the incubator and not disturbed for 48 hours.  The next time they will be looked at is Sunday morning.  Corey and I are supposed to arrive at the office in Little Rock around 9:30 on Sunday morning.  There is a chance we will get a call while we are driving saying not to come because we have no embryos left, but I wouldn't bet on it.  We have hope that is not going to be the case.   I will be praying without ceasing!  Today is the first day of Spring (hallelujah!) and everything is beginning to come alive again.  The trees are budding and the flowers are beginning to bloom.  I'm am just overwhelmed by a feeling of new life.  What a perfect time to be right where we are in this process!!  I don't think that's an accident, I think it's a gift.