I Can't Stop Smiling...UPDATED

The lab had good news again for us yesterday.

Out of 9 fertilized eggs, ALL 9 were still dividing on Day 2. We had 3 3-cells, 3 4-cells, and 3 6-cells. When I asked about the 6-cells, he said it was a little fast, but we'd know more in the morning. As long as they stayed in the 10-12 cell range by Day 3, they should be fine.

Even better, when I asked about fragmentation, he told me that all 9 embryos were either grade 4 or 5 (with 5 being the best). The only ones that were grade 4 were knocked down by some slight un-evenness in dividing, which is fairly common and not something to worry about. The exact words he used were, "great quality." *grin*

We'll know more when we get there for transfer this morning, of course. We are hoping to pick the two best -looking ones from yesterday's 3 or 4 cell batch, and take the rest to day 5 to see if we can get some blasts to freeze.

Finally, finally, some good news from the RE. I've waited so long for this, and now I know that we CAN make healthy embies! Now all we have to do is get them to stick around for a while. I don't want to jinx anything (I don't believe in jinxes, after all), but I told my mom yesterday that I really think this might work.

Wow.

Like I said, I can't stop smiling.

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Transfer this morning went as smoothly as could be. Dr. Optimistic called us "overachievers" and seemed so positive! We transferred two 8-cell embryos: one grade 5, one grade 4+ (marked down for a slight un-evenness in one cell division). As of that time, all 7 others were still dividing; two were between 6-9 cells and a few were already at the 10-12 range. Although Dr. Sarcastic (the embryologist) reminded us that some of the faster ones may still "fizzle" out, they were both thinking its likely we'll have at least a few make it to freeze.

As for right now, I'm officially PUPO and couldn't be happier. This is the closest we have ever been -- for all we know, it's the first time we have ever even conceived together. Mo is terribly excited -- he got to be there with me during transfer. He held my hand the entire time, and got misty-eyed as he watched the procedure via ultrasound. He's already sent pics of the embies to all his friends. :-) He's been great about taking care of me, even going to the store and stocking up on Gatorade and all my favorite (healthy) treats while I napped this afternoon. I woke up a little while ago to find the newest copies of both "FitPregnancy" and "Parenting" magazine on my coffee table. While I know he may be jumping the gun just a little, I find his optimism and sincerity to be very endearing.

Though I'm unsure to whom exactly I'm pleading, I'll still put it out there: please, please let this work.