I'm PUPO with triplets!

Yesterday was a good day!

All 3 of our blasts not only survived the thaw but also re-expanded "beautifully" according to our RE and embryologist. The doctor was pleasantly surprised with one of them - July '06 (the one from Pensacola that was biopsied twice and frozen with two different methods). If you look at the pic above, we have one blast from each of the IVF cycles. The blast on the bottom right is from the July '06 IVF/ICSI/PGD-FISH cycle in Pensacola, FL. That em-baby has been through one biopsy on Day 3, frozen the old-fashioned way (slow freeze), shipped from Pensacola to Denver, thawed, re-biopsied, vitrified (flash freeze), and thawed a third time for transfer. The blast on the top is from the July '08 IVF/ICSI/PGD-FISH cycle at CCRM. This em-baby has been through the least of the three: biopsy on Day 3, vitrified, and thawed for transfer. The blast on the bottom left is from my latest cycle - the November '08 IVF/ICSI/CGH/PGD-FISH cycle at CCRM. This em-baby has been through biopsy on Day 5, vitrified, thawed, re-biopsied, vitrified, and thawed again for the transfer.

The ET (embryo transfer) went well. I decided to try acupuncture before and after ET. What's $225 in the whole scheme of things? Besides, that's the only thing that we haven't tried, and I'm a bit desperate here. Ok, I'm a lot desperate. Anyway... It wasn't as bad as I thought. The acupuncture session took place in the same room as the ET. There was soft, soothing music playing in the background. The acupuncturist was very nice and talked me through the whole process. She told me to inhale as she placed the hollow tube that held the acupuncture needle on my skin and to give a quick blow as she tapped the needle in my skin. She put two needles in my right ear and then she went onto do the left ear. Then she put a needle on the top of my head. Next, she moved onto putting two needles in my abdomen, to the left and right of just below the belly button. Then she put one needle in the middle of each calf. Then she moved onto the top of the feet. After she inserted each needle, she gave it a quick twist. She left for about 15 minutes or so and then came back to give the needles another twist before leaving again. Then she came back and took out the needles. She would return to do another session right after the transfer.

The ultrasound tech then came in to check the fullness of my bladder. For the past few days, I've been having to urinate a lot. I haven't changed the amount of liquid I've been drinking, so maybe it's due to the Prometrium. I don't know. But I didn't need to drink but a few sips of water before my bladder was full.

Dr. Schoolcraft peeked in and told us the good news about the embryos. We have blasts representative of three development stages. The November '08 em-baby is encased in the zona pellucida (shell). You can just barely see the halo surrounding the blast. The July '08 em-baby is in the process of hatching out of the shell. The July '06 em-baby is completely hatched. Then he proceeded to get me prepped for the transfer. Then the embryologist came in, and we got to see the embryos on the monitor. Jerry asked if he could take a picture of the monitor if the flash was turned off. And that's the pic that you see on the top of this post - our three beautiful em-babies. The ET was over in like 5 minutes or so. Dr. Schoolcraft gave us a good prognosis of getting pregnant with a 1% chance of triplets and 25% of twins.

There's a verse in the Bible that I've been taking to heart lately. It's from Mark 11:24. "Therefore, I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours."

So for now, I'm going to believe that I'm PUPO with triplets - That is Pregnant Until Proven Otherwise with triplets!!

Please dear God, I'll do anything...