So happy it went well for you! Prayers for continued success!

Wow, that sounds great, Steph. Good luck & keep us posted.

lets hope some little swimmer finds a great home!

i havn't heard from ds2 if anything happen this month with their try...i've told dil about you, and what an inspiration you are...

That's great news Stephanie! I'm glad to see it went better than you anticipated.

Steph, can I ask a question if it's not too personal?
Do they still have your dh's "deposit" from last time to use? or does that have to be done over again too, like your egg retrieval? I was just curious how that side of this whole process works.

Thank you for sharing this with us, it really is interesting to learn, but it stinks that you have to go through it in the first place. I hope this one works for you on the first try.

More Hugs,
tammy

Wonderful news...this is wonderful Steph. Get some rest, keeping good thoughts and saying lots of prayers for you!

Tammy, my husband has to "deposit" again! ;-)
They take him to do that while they're doing my egg retrieval.

When they take the eggs to the lab, they strip them from their outer "shell" and analyze which ones are good enough to try to fertilize. They then inject a single sperm into each egg and let them sit for 24 hours.

Typically, they just add some sperm to the dish with the egg and let them come together on their own, but in my case they're doing the injection of the sperm (called ICSI) which is done when there's some male factor infertility going on (basically sperm issues).

It really is amazing how they do all of this. I'm so glad everything went well and they got more eggs than anticipated. That's great news! Can't wait to hear more tomorrow.

19 sounds like a great number! Hope it all works out and Grant can become a big brother!

Fantastic!

Gayle

Congratulations Steph. I'm glad you had a good amount of them little eggs.
Thanks Tammy for asking what I was wondering myself. Good thoughts and prayers for a good result
Leslie

Lucky 19! I hope the rest of this process goes really smoothly for you and Brent, Steph. Best wishes!

Thats great news Stephanie!

Warmest wishes, Steph!

Great news, Stephanie. How long before the next step? Keeping fingers, toes and eyes crossed for you. A sister for Grant would be fun, but a brother could wear all those cute little clothes of Grant's. Rest well and think good thoughts.

So are the eggs and sperm only visible by microscope? That's so amazing that they can do that with something so small. The whole process is truly amazing. I'm so glad that they are able to do this for you.

patti, the next step is to transfer the embryos into my uterus. That will happen either Saturday or Monday.

The let them grow in the lab for 3 days and on that 3rd day (Saturday), they look at them and see how they're doing. If they're good quality embryos, they let them stay in the lab 2 more days to turn into blastocysts, which is basically the last stage of growth before they "hatch" and can implant into a uterus. It's better to transfer a blast embryo because it's farther advanced and if it's gotten to that stage, it's better quality. If the embryos dont look all that great on the 3rd day, they'll transfer them then and see whatever else might make it 2 more days and then on the 5th day, whatever made it, they'll freeze.

Then on the 21st, I'll have a pregnancy test.

This is fascinating to me. I had trouble conceiving 20 or so years ago, my doctor didn't want to try IVF, and eventually I got pregnant the "natural" way. I had two healthy daughters, born 1988 and 1989. I know how difficult it can be. Best of luck, Steph, my dear friend!

Yea! too bad they can't do it on Mother's Day! LOL

Very exciting news!! :) Keeping you and your DH in my thoughts and prayers and hoping that things continue to go well!

Nineteen is one of my favorite numbers! (Could it be because I was born on April 19th?)

In any case, when you're happy, we're happy. Great report!

I'm just curious, let's say that hypothetically 11 out of the 19 eggs look good enough to fertilize, and then all of them are viable. What is the maximum number they would generally implant at a time? I'm thinking of 'John and Kate, Plus Eight' here, lol.

In any case, you'll be in my thoughts for a successful healthy pregnancy.

19 is a good number, since Grants birthday is July 19!!

Pickyshopper, they will only transfer 2 embryos in me, primarily because I typically have really good quality embryos to begin with. If their quality is just so-so, they might do 3 but it's not likely I will need that. Anything left over will get frozen.

The risk of high level multiples is much less with IVF. In the case of John and Kate, they used fertility drugs (like what I use with my IVF) to grow follicles but they then just either had sex at the right time or did an IUI (intrauterine insemination). The risk of multiples by this method is very high because you have no control over how many of your follicles ovulate and fertilize. With IVF, it's totally controlled.

Good luck!

Very cool.

My DB and SIL went through IVF and they have triplets. She had three good embryos so they implanted all three. The crazy thing was after all three took they gave them the option of selecting one to be removed. They couldn't do it. All three will start Jr. High in the fall.

It seems better to only go two at a time.

Thanks for sharing you amazing stories.

danihoney, they do give you the option of selectively reducing, its common in most clinics. In fact, when you sign consent forms, you have to agree to either being ok with multiples or being ok with reducing.

Triplets would be very hard. I commend anyone who has them!

It sounds like a miracle to me. I can't imagine how the doctor/scientist/? discovered that. That person sure made for a lot of happy families. Wow! I'm in awe and amazed.

That sounds great, Steph. Good luck to you and Brent. I hope you get some rest. Thank you for telling us about the procedure. I learn so much here at KT. :)

Linda

Yay! I'm so excited for you! : D

Blessings,
Haley

They weren't without complications. All were VERY small. Two pounds and under. My nephew has Asperger's Syndrome and one of my nieces was just diagnosed with Scoliosis. They are GREAT kids and I really don't think my DB and SIL get enough credit with how much work it is. They said they thought of reduction, but looking at them now, which one wouldn't be here? Not sure I could have done it either.

My DH and I have said before how hard it must be to get all your kids at once. We tease our oldest telling him he's our "practice kid".

Just a side note Steph since you are knowledgeable. My DB went through this 11 years ago so I wonder if their procedure is common by now. Their issue was with my DB. He had almost a zero sperm count and were told by a few Dr's that they could pretty much forget getting pregnant and that even IVF was highly unlikely. They found out about a European Dr that was doing a procedure no one here was doing. I don't know all of the vocabulary, but I guess DB's sperm didn't develop all the way. I think they never grew 'tails'. This doc removed sperm cells from within the walls of DB's testes and were able to fertilize my SIL's eggs. She had also gone through all the stuff you went through. I remember being shocked by the number of good eggs she had. I didn't know until reading your story how expected that was. I've really learned a lot from you.

Anyway, this procedure they went through was the first and only time I've ever heard of it. Sorry to make my post so long, but have you heard of this? It seems like it would have made the news or something.

I have heard of that procedure but I dont know the name of it. I've heard it used in cases just like your DB. It's amazing, isn't it?

Steph, this is wonderful news! Gosh, you could have a Valentine's baby!!

Now we're all going to be eagerly awaiting the results of your pregnancy test....

You know I'm Praying for you! You are such a good Mommy (probably because YOU had a wonderful example!) Grant and any other children you have will be so lucky and one day they'll all understand what you went through to bring them into yours & Brent's lives!

Got it all crossed for you and brent Steph. You have been so kind to let us in on this exciting adventure and to share the experience with us. It truly is fascinating. I just know it will be successful.

Yep Steph, It's all pretty amazing.

Best wishes to you :o)

Glad to hear everything went well. I will be keeping you guys in my thoughts in the next few weeks & I hope everything goes well
Heather

Good luck and good thoughts to you.

great news!!! Come on little eggies!!