We have fertilization!

We got our call this afternoon from the RE.  Out of 13 retrieved, 8 eggs were mature and 8 fertilized!  That's a 100% fertilization rate!  WHOOHOO!!  Trying not to be bummed about having 5 immature eggs.  I was expecting for some of them to be immature - but not that many.  Wasn't expecting that high of a fert rate though.  Last time we got 75% - I wonder if this is evidence of the better lab quality??  So things definitely look good and hopefully we will have some good embryos develop out of these original "elite 8" embies:)  Who knows - maybe we will have them all go to day 5 and will be able to transfer 2 and freeze 6 for later!  Realistically though they say to expect that 1/3 of embies that fertilize to be able to reach blastocyst stage on day 5.  Last time we had 0% reach that stage on day 5 so there is certainly room for improvement there!  Saying my prayers that we have some reach that stage this round - but of course thanking God too for this initial "breath of life" that He has given them.

We will get a call from our RE on Tuesday morning no later than 10am and he will tell us if he wants us to come in that day for a 3 day transfer or come in Thursday for a 5 day blastocyst transfer.  A 5dt is preferable because that will mean that we have more embryos looking good on day 3.  Also, embryos that have developed in to blasts and survived to day 5 will have proven that they are strong enough to continue growing once transferred back to the uterus.  Another benefit is that it's easier to pick out the best embryos when they are in the blastocyst stage.  But a 3dt is good as well if the number of embryos at that point is low enough to warrant that kind of transfer.  Most good 3 day embryos have 6-8 cells and have low fragmentation - but plenty of "ugly" 3 day embryos make healthy babies too.  It's all in being able to pick out the best embryo for transfer.  If on day 3 we only have 3 embryos left, chances are good that the 2 embryos they pick will be the strongest - but if we still have 8 embryos, it will be harder to pick the embryos that will be the strongest and in that case we would do a 5dt.

So my priority for this week is to stay away from google and "let go and let God". We have done everything that we can at this point and now it is in the hands of our doctor and God to allow the embryos develop so that we end up with the baby that we were meant to have. I am pushing questions regarding my egg quality from my mind for now since there is nothing I can do about that right now. There will be plenty of time to analyze that later if I need to. For now, I am going to just relax!