IVF Update

Our egg retrieval was last Friday and things looked really good. Here are the basics:

• 9 eggs were retrieved and 7 of those were mature.
• 6 of the 7 actually fertilized
• On Day two, 3 of those eggs stopped growing. The three remaining eggs were progressing, two of them were below average quality and one looked to be good quality.
• On day three we have two below average embryos that are 8-cell and 5 cell. They should be a 6-8 cell embryo on day three. The third embryo that was our good one was still a 2 cell and the embryologist said it may not continue to day four.

Everything looked so good into egg retrieval...our best cycle numbers yet, but today we don't even know if these embyos will make it to transfer at all.

We are trying to understand what God is doing here and what direction he wants us to take. We certainly continue to ask for your prayers...

Day 3 Progress

here is the latest update on our little ones...

All of the embryos are progressing. Both of the two cell embryos are now 4-cell embryos and the 4-cell embryo from yesterday is now a 6-cell embryo. The embryologist said that the current 4-cell embryos are a little behind, but it is common for ICSI embryos to be a little slow developing at first. Science does not fully know why this is but it he said that part of it may be due to the trauma of the fertilization procedure. It is like it had surgery when the needle is injected to allow the sperm to penetrate. It just needs time to recover just as we do when we have surgery. He did not seem concerned about those two being behind a bit, he said that what was important was that they were all progessing. He also told me that typically ICSI embryos, because they are sometimes behind, will be cultured until Day 6 before they are transferred into the womb. We will know more after we check progress tomorrow, but it could be Wednesday now before they are transferred. We continue to pray for their development and praise GOD for how amazing this process is! I am blown away by all that happens to bring life into the world. It is an incredible!

Prayer Focus:
Continued development of the embryos
That my body is ready to accept them once transferred
Richard's return from his Walk to Emmaus!