Day 21 - the two week wait begins

Wow - its been a big few days. On Friday I had my blood test to make sure my E2 levels were back down so that we could go ahead with the embryo transfer. Luckily, they were down to 7740 IU so low enough.

Saturday we arrived at the clinic at 9.00am for the transfer. The embryologist told us that we had two good blastocysts for transfer. Surprisingly, one of them wasn't one of the three that had looked good on Day 3. A little 8-cell one had kicked on so that was transferred. We had one fully expanded blast and one partially expanded blast not doing as well.

Compared with egg pick-up, embryo transfer was a piece of cake. We went into the theatre and we could see our little blasts up on the screen. There was no anaesthetics and no drugs needed this time. Dr D inserted the speculum (god I hate those things - as many pap smears as I ever have, I will never get used to them!) and then used the ultrasound on my tummy to see the uterus. She pointed out a small 'slit' that must have been the endometrial space and said that's where the embryos would go. If she hadn't pointed it out, it would have looked like a whole lot of white noise to me.

Anyway, the embryologist loaded the embryos and handed it over and she inserted it into the right place. I was watching really closely but damned if I saw them inserted. It was all over within about 2 minutes. I got up, walked out and that was it.

I've been given another box of Crinone for luteal support and am continuing on that until Oct 22, which is my pregnancy test date and Day 30.

We then headed off to the airport and interstate for our friend's wedding. It was just wonderful that we still got to go and we had a really lovely time seeing everyone. It was also my first alcohol-free outing with the potential pregnancy on board. If anyone noticed I wasn't drinking, they didn't say. Actually lovely husband and I devised some cunning ways to make it appear I was drinking, involving him drinking from my glass sometimes. I'm not ready for the questions yet so am trying to keep up the facade.

Last night I started to feel down again - back at the bottom of the rollercoaster. I woke up at midnight and realised how devastated I will feel if this cycle doesn't work. It didn't last long though and now I'm feeling very positive again.

The freezing report from the embryologist today had a lot to do with my mood. Amazingly, they told us we had FOUR embryos frozen. I could hardly believe it. We had mentally prepared ourselves for none to be suitable to freeze. My body (and now husband's as well) continues to amaze me. One is a fully expanded blast, one is just a blast, and two are early blasts. They are all grade 2, which is fair on a scale of 1 (good) to 3 (bad) so if this cycle doesn't work, we could conceivably go straight into a frozen cycle in November.

So after being at the bottom of the slope this morning, I am now riding the crest of the wave tonight. Who knows what I'll be like tomorrow. Fortunately I am juggling two jobs so am frantically busy, which helps a lot.

I'm now into the two week wait wilderness (which is actually only a 11 day wait and now only 9!) and overanalysing every tiny bodily symptom for evidence of implantation and hCG release. I thought I could feel little twinges around my uterus today, but I could also have been imagining it.

The two week wait must surely be the most emotionally draining part of trying to conceive, and even worse in an IVF cycle because you've gone through so much to get to it with none of the fun!