Z Baby Quest

I haven't updated in a while because for a long time, we were in a holding pattern waiting for so many people to finalize paperwork on our behalf. Last Friday, I heard back from the patient coordinator and nurse at the same time that we have finally been medically cleared and our home study was approved!! YAY! I cannot believe we started this whole process in FEBRUARY and it's now mid December and we're finally getting the ball rolling. SOOOOO, I received 3 zip drives of files from the clinic. They each contain donor family profiles organized by embryo "grade". The earliest embryo that is frozen is know as 2PN (pro-nucleus), and if you don't remember these terms from high school embrology, this means it's the state of the cells after the sperm and egg have just joined. The next is called the multicell. When you do IVF, the embryologist looks at how your embryos are dividing on day 3 after fertilization. If they have divided in to 3-8 cells, they are charaterized as multicell and the doctor will transfer them to your uterus on Day 3. Day 3 embryo transfers are riskier, because the embryos aren't growing as fast or well as they could, but many, many IVF cycles have been successful with 3 day transfers. The last stage is called the blastocyst. These are transferred on Day 5 and are just before the embryo hatches. We have this huge pile of files to weed through now and narrow it down from about 225 to 10! Please pray that we have the patience and wisdom to navigate this portion of the process. It's very hard on us, mentally, physically and spiritually. But once we choose our 10 profiles, the doctors decide based on the overall health of the embryos and will transfer the best ones that give us the greatest chance for success. Stay tuned!