Embryo Update

Friday was a big day for us….a big, big day.

We already knew that we were supposed to get the e-mail containing basic information on the embryos available this cycle. Friday morning I got a phone call that the e-mail wouldn't go through on my work mail so they faxed them. It was agonizing waiting for the 55 pages to start coming through on our outdated fax machine. The fax machine worked so slow I was able to read them as they were coming though so I could let Jay know what stack to put them in. After they were all finally in our hands we went into my office and made our decision in about 10 minutes. Really there wasn't much to decide between on any of them. Probably the main thing that we had agreed on was that we wanted Caucasian embryos. We have been open to adopting other races, but I really didn't want to give birth to a baby of a different race. Since we live in a small town it would be known that I was pregnant, but you know not everyone would get the 'memo' that we had adopted the embryos. I'm sure there would be a few stories going around once they saw me carrying around a Hispanic/Asian/Black child. That's not an issue either of us felt like facing or putting on a child.

Once we got sorted through the races, there wasn't much left that mattered to us. We ended up picking 4 different genetic couples. The reasons why we placed one #1 was because they were the tallest and #4 because the female was older (which means older eggs). I fired the e-mail back to the clinic requesting those 4 donor numbers. Jay left and I went back to work. A few minutes later I got an e-mail back saying three of our four were already reserved, we needed to pick more and quickly. I grabbed our sheets and just started scanning the ones still available. There was no time for input from Jay, not that it would've mattered, I just had to pick. It wouldn't have mattered because there were only about 4-6 more genetic families that were even a possibility. I just had to pull them out and go with them. We weren't disappointed or anything, because at this point it really didn't matter to us when it came down to characteristics. We ended up with 5 different genetic families with a total of 6 embryos. The clinic requires 6 embryos because they don't usually all survive the thawing process. In about two weeks we'll get a more comprehensive health history on the embryos we have chosen.

Later that afternoon I got a call from the clinic nurse. The transfer date has been set for July 21, which meant I had to start the Lupron Saturday. I'm also scheduled for an ultrasound at a fertility clinic in Olathe, Ks next Monday. Jay has given me two of the Lupron shots and so far it's going ok. The first one I didn't even feel, but it stung afterwards. Last nights hurt going in, but didn't sting afterwards. So who knows??? Once the NEDC gets the ultrasound results I'll get the clearance to start Estrace. I'll go back on July 15 for another ultrasound and then we will leave for Knoxville on Sunday the 18^th.

We are finally on the road with all of this. We are just praying that this works for us. For some reason Cade has been talking more and more about having a baby…what would this be like or that be like. Saturday I told him he was my Favortist Boy in the whole world. He asked if he would be my favortist if he had a brother. I explained that he would be the favortist big brother and the other would be my favortist younger brother. Cade said "I'd rather just have a girl".