Transfer Day

Yesterday we went to the Northside Summerfest in Chicago to enjoy the beautiful weather, hear some great music, see some friends and family and keep our mind off of our IVF cycle. While at the street festival we received the phone call that the transfer would be a day 3 transfer today. This is our very first day 3 transfer. All of our previous transfers were able to be done on day 5 with blastocysts. In the world of reproductive medicine, there are many different schools of thought as to whether it is better to transfer on day 3 or day 5. Allowing the embryos to grow to day 5 in the lab reveals which are the strongest and best to transfer. However, some doctors believe that the sooner the embryos are put back into their natural environment the better.  Due to our low numbers this cycle, our best option was to put the embryos into a healthy uterus as soon as possible. We are hoping this difference might be the bit of luck we need to make this a successful cycle, in addition to the fact that we are transferring into our gestational carrier.

Greg and I arrived at the Highland Park IVF Center at 7:15am. It has become a tradition for me to bring Starbucks on these early morning days and Dr. Beltsos was kind enough to treat all of us this morning. I was a little nervous as to how this all would go with me not being the one undergoing the transfer. All of the HP staff made us feel so welcome and comfortable. The embryologist informed us that we had 2 good embryos to transfer. We transferred both of them and I was able to be in the room with our gestational carrier. They showed us magnified pictures of the embryos and even gave us a tour of the embryology lab after the procedure. Our carrier also received a post-transfer acupuncture treatment thanks to my acupuncturist, Nanci Bankier, of Natural Balance Healing Centers.

I am hopeful, yet scared to think that our only two embryos are inside of our carrier. Greg and I continue to pray that this cycle will be successful and finally bring us our baby.

This is a magnified picture of the two embryos that were transferred into our gestational carrier.