2 Perfect Embryos

The last 2 days has been kind of a whirlwind, so I haven't been able to update until now.

On Tuesday, between the retrieval and transfer, Nate and I had a couple's yoga session with Beth at HIHF. The focus of this session was to open up our chests while focusing on different breathing patterns. As simple as it sounds, I can't even begin to describe how relaxing this is. The position we were in also worked out all the stresses and kinks in our backs (we used bolsters) and she showed us some great neck stretches as well. After a crappy hotel bed for 10+ days, this felt like heaven! These exercises we can easily do as a couple, and it will keep us relaxed and feeling better throughout the next 2 weeks which will seem like the longest of our lives. It's perfectly safe to do while pregnant, and there is even emphasis on strengthening the pelvic floor muscles which I'll definitely need. Beth has a great energy about her, and she is so knowledgeable. We felt incredibly rejuvenated and relaxed afterwards, and I highly recommend the yoga therapy at HIHF. Not just for fertility reasons either!

After yoga, I had an acupuncture session with Christine. I had accidentally booked a session for Tuesday thinking that was when my pre-transfer treatment was supposed to be, but it turns out I needed to book one for right before the transfer and right after. However, there's only positive benefits from having more treatments, so I went ahead with the session anyways. Christine had some wonderful knowledge about foods to eat and avoid while in the 2 week wait and into pregnancy. After having yoga AND acupuncture, I was beyond relaxed and excited for the transfer the next day.

Wednesday morning, the day of the transfer, I called the embryologist to find out if I needed to continue with the Medrol. As a side note, Medrol is the WORST tasting medication I have ever had. I was close to throwing up every time I took it. You know how gross Gravol tastes? Yeah, this is like 1000 times worse, *shudder*. Thankfully, I didn't need to continue taking it as our thick shelled embryo had thinned out on its own and was looking good. So no assisted hatching was needed.

At 1:00, I had my pre-transfer acupuncture session with Gina at HIHF. It was wonderful as always (looove the acutonics she does!), and they even had the IVF Circle + Bloom CD playing for me during treatment. The pre-transfer session on that CD is awesome, so I was in a good place by the end of the treatment.

After that, Nate and I grabbed lunch and then headed to the clinic. They were running a bit behind, but by 3:50 or so we were in the room for the transfer. I don't recall being as bared to the world as I was this time (good thing I'm not shy!) and I didn't fill my bladder quite enough, but that didn't effect the procedure. The embryologist told us we had 2 PERFECT 8 cell embryos to transfer (yay!!!!) and 3 good looking embryos to freeze (triple yay!!!). That means our late fertilized egg ended up being freezable. Below is the picture of our 2 embryos that they gave us (their first baby picture!) as well as pics of Nate and I all dressed up in our gowns before the procedure:





After hanging out at the clinic for half an hour to let our precious embryos settle in, we headed back to HIHF for acupuncture with Courtney and a special simultaneous Reiki treatment with Laura. They made the perfect team, and their talents combined with the Circle + Bloom CD playing again in the background made the entire treatment very powerful. I could just feel the positive energy surrounding me, and I was in a state beyond relaxation. I'm so very glad I found HIHF... they have made this IVF an entirely different experience for me than our last one, and I cannot say enough good things about every single one of the women who work there. I've been telling my mom all about it, and we are going to try and plan a day trip up there sometime in the future. It's so worth it!

After our crazy day, it was finally time to head back to the hotel. As I packed the last of our stuff, I got a text from Jodie & Greg (Nate's cousin and his wife who we are very close to) and they had their baby girl, Alysa Rayne, earlier in the day. Talk about a good day! 1 baby out, and (hopefully) 2 babies in! We are over the moon for them, and can't wait to meet her when we head to Vancouver sometime this spring.

While Nate loaded up the truck, I checked us out of the hotel (they gave me a weird look for checking out at 7:30 pm but we REALLY wanted our own bed), and then we loaded up the pugs and were on our way. We arrived home around 11 pm, and it was so wonderful to see Mom and all of our kitties. Our bed has never felt so heavenly... I missed home so much!

I have spent most of today in bed sleeping as my body has been through an awful lot lately and I am beyond exhausted. I also think that the intense treatments I had yesterday at HIHF have had an effect as well, as I'm just all over relaxed and feeling good.

The next 2 weeks of waiting are going to suck, but I feel incredibly positive about this cycle and I just know this is going to work for us. Thank-you to all our friends and family who gave your support through this. We love you all!