Keep growing embryos!

I woke up today and knew it was going to be a good day. I am feeling so positive about this cycle, it's just ridiculous. I don't know if I am building myself up for a big fall, but I don't think I have a choice in this. For a time I didn't allow myself to think that becoming pregnant could ever happen to me, because at least that way I wouldn't get hurt. But as we progress through our infertility journey, I have realised that you can't stop having hope. However painful it is, it is what wakes me up in the morning, allows me to go the shopping centre at christmas time, and hold my friend's babies in my arms. It is what keeps me going even though I know it might kill at times. It will make it all the sweeter when it is my turn. And my turn IS coming.

Update on our embryos, as of today which is Day 3, we have three 8-cell embryos, one 7-cell embryo, one 5-cell embryo, one 4-cell embryo and one 2-cell embryo.

So from my reading it would suggest that the 2-cell embryo is a goner as is the 4-cell. The 5-cell could still be okay, but we are really focusing on the 7/8-cell embryos to pull through. They are graded on a scale of 1-4 with 1 being the best result. At this point we have one grade 1 embryo, three grade 2 embryos, two grade 3 embryos and one grade 4 embryo which I would assume is the 2-cell. I tried to find information on the internet about the grading system for embryos, but it appears that clinics do it differently all over the world. This is the only thing that I have found about our particular grading convention:
* Grade 1: even cell division, no fragmentation
* Grade 2: even cell division, small fragmentation
* Grade 3: uneven cell division, moderate fragmentation
* Grade 4: uneven cell division, excessive fragmentation


Apparently the next step in the process is for them to grow to morula on Day 4 (Sunday), and then blastocyst on day 5 (Monday). Steve is going to call us on Monday morning to make sure that we have a blast to transfer.

This is what scares me now - that we might have gotten to this point and done so well, yet we still might not have any blasts to transfer. Financially we need to freeze some embryos this cycle, as our PHI doesn't kick in until May this year, and we can't afford the hospital costs associated with OPU before then, so we are relying on doing a FET cycle next should this be unsuccessful. We made the decision to do only one EPU before May for my sanity but we can't afford to do it again as it's an extra $2500 out of pocket cost on top of the IVM cost itself.

Anyhow, our embryo transfer is booked in for Monday at 1.15pm. My nerves are getting the best of me, I wish I could go back to bed and magically sleep through the next two days and be there already!!!