Hey girls, sorry I've been MIA. We arrived home tonight. That is a looong drive but I'm still glad we drove vs. flew. It is so good to be home.
First off - congratulations Tara on your transfer and Shawna on your ER!!
:
: I'm glad you're feeling better Tara. Not to be all mother hen on you, but keep doing your sodium and protein. Sometimes when pregnancy hormones kick in they can trigger late stage OHSS if you're at risk, so keep up with your preventive measures
Shawna how are you feeling? I hope your cramps have eased up. Kudos to your dh
Now for me - Monday we went in for the transfer. I had acupuncture pre and post - they have someone on site if you request it which is nice. I had my pre transfer valium (first time ever for valium, kind of a fun buzz). The embryologist came in and gave us the update. We only had 1 at the blastocyst stage. The other 7 were still in the morula stage (pre-blastocyst). The embryologist had prepped 2 of the morulas for transfer in case we opted to transfer 3 (he did assisted hatching with those).
We talked with the doc about transferring 3 (1 blast and 2 morulas) and while he's the more conservative doc in the group he encouraged us to do all 3. Our odds of triplets are only 5% and odds of twins are 30%. I feel pretty comfortable with those odds although dh is freaked out about triplets (I would be too, but in my gut I feel pretty calm that we won't have to worry about it - knock on wood). The transfer was a piece of cake. We were able to see them before the transfer - they had a screen that projected the microscope so even I got to see them which was pretty cool.
The tricky thing was not knowing if we were going to have anything to freeze or not before we did the transfer. If we knew we had 5 that would be frozen I think I would've been more inclined to just do 2, but not knowing if we would have any made it a little trickier. It was entirely possible that some or all of them would arrest at the morula stage. It's impossible to predict unfortunately.
They let the remaining 5 percolate another day to see if they made it to blasts or not. We found out yesterday that they all made it and that is a huge relief. Of course now dh is extra freaked out thinking that the 2 morulas they transferred have also made it to blast stage and now we're destined for triplets. Poor guy.
We stayed with my brother and his wife last night. They have a 6 month old that is adorable but not the greatest sleeper and they are both exhausted. They were having a great time making triplet and twin jokes.
So now the wait begins. I was on bed rest the rest of transfer day and the day after. We started driving back that day (Tuesday). I figured I could ride in a car with the seat reclined and my feet up just as well as sitting on a couch. Beta is next Weds. the 24th. If it's positive we have another one the 26th to see if it's doubled like it's supposed to. If it has we have an ultrasound 2 weeks from next Weds. to see how many stuck and how it looks. Tara, it does feel rather surreal. I can't believe how quickly the whole IVF process went in retrospect. It seemed like such a HUGE deal when we were going into it and now it seems like a blip on the screen.
LiamsMom - good luck with this cycle. More than one woman has gotten pregnant the cycle before their IVF, so you never know
abeecharmer - I never talked with my RE about foods to eat. Quite frankly I think most "traditional" docs are pretty useless when it comes to nutritional advice. I've gotten a lot of good info from my acupuncturist. I eat a pretty good diet with good protein anyway, so I don't remember us talking about this. One of the things with protein is that it helps regulate your blood sugar which can impact hormones and I would guess egg quality potentially. I have read that increased levels of protein (80g per day) can help prevent ovarian hyperstimmulation (OHSS) and when pregnant pre-eclampsia. Good luck with your suppression check tomorrow!
biomama - glad the yoga dilemma has resolved. Hang in there, I had to wait out a couple months but in retrospect the time went really quickly.
Aly, so sorry to hear about the loss of your twin 
But other than that, I'm super excited!
I am so happy
I'm finally starting to feel better though so that helps. A friend is coming by soon to drop off the first two books of the Twilight series, swearing I have to read them. lol So hopefully that will get me thru the bedrest. Guess it's all a waiting game from there.
Follow Mothering