Poppy Seeds

Yesterday was a complete success! The entire experience was surreal. The morning started off with a wet drive from Key Largo to Miami and we actually arrived 20 minutes early. The butterflies were in full swing as we waited for the acupuncturist to show...they told me to be well hydrated and to arrive with a full bladder, well I took that literally and drank 4 huge bottles of water and a Gatorade. My bladder was so full during the acupuncture (at the beginning) that I thought it would burst. There was nothing relaxing about it because of my bladder, the needles needed to stay in for 20 minutes and by the end I was in tears from holding it all in, there is nothing pretty about this process. From the side affects to the actual procedures, I've learned that I can't hide anything and privacy has gone out the window.

After the acupuncture I was allowed to pee 3 times, they kept sending me back to go some more (I would have to stop in the middle, 6, 9, 12 seconds at a time, stopping is not an easy task). Even after all that, I still had a full bladder. After all the partial pees, I was at least comfortable during the procedure. My doctor was amazing and explained every step. They gave us a picture of our 2 embryos/blastocysts that were transferred...they are graded a perfect A, they couldn't get any better. These little guys were fertilized by the regular IVF method (each egg received 100,000 sperm and the one sperm had to fight its way into the egg). Believe it or not, the sex is already determined at this point and our little ones are the size of a poppy seed. How incredibly amazing is that!

Here's the beautiful picture:



The outside lining is the beginning of the placenta, and the embies now have 3 distinct layers that will grow into specialized parts of our babies bodies. And guess what, the follies (what the eggs were held in) are now called the corpus luteum, it collapsed and starts to produce the hormone progesterone and estrogen. This will help nourish and support the pregnancy until the placenta takes over in about 10 weeks. In addition, I am now taking progesterone and estrogen twice a day for the next 2 months, so our babies will be well fed already! I am so amazed at the miracle of pregnancy, this entire process has been so educational and the more I learn the more amazed I become.

We were able to watch the entire transfer on the ultrasound machine. They dimmed the lights and played soft music in the background. After the procedure was over I had to lay still for 20 minutes and was place don bed rest for 48 hours. My hubby recorded the entire procedure, and he's working on editing the footage so we can share it on the blog. For now here's a picture:



The 2 embies are inside the circled area...they look like little white beans.

I've been resting for the last 2 days...I cant stop staring at my tummy and I keep thinking that every pregnancy like symptom I have is a sign, but we have to wait until Aug 20th for our prego test. So pray that our little embies implant into the uterus.

We love our Poppy Seeds!