Hoping...Believing...Waiting: Day 5

Embryos at the blastocyst stage of development

The morula will continue to develop and start to cavitate. The embryo begins to turn into a hollow ball of cells known as a blastocyst. The blastocyst consists of two main parts an area denser with cells called the inner cell mass (ICM) which will eventually form the fetus, and the trophectoderm which will go on to be the placenta. The picture shows two blastocysts, the one on the left is an expanded blastocyst, the one on the right has expanded and is hatching from the shell (zona pellucida) and is getting ready to implant.

This is what happens in a 5 day transfer (blasts):

1dpt....Blastocyst hatches out of shell on this day
2dpt.. Blastocyst attaches to a site on the uterine lining
3dpt.. Implantation begins,as the blastocyst begins to bury in the lining
4dpt.. Implantation process continues and morula buries deeper in the lining
5dpt.. Morula is completely implanted in the lining and has placenta cells &
foetal cells
6dpt...Placenta cells begin to secret HCG in the blood
7dpt...More HCG is produced as foetus develops
8dpt...More HCG is produced as foetus develops
9dpt...HCG levels are now high enough to be immediately detected on
HPT

Thought this information was interesting as to why it is good to wait to Day 5 to transfer:
BY: Dr. T. Timothy Smith
The primary reason embryos do not make it to the blastocyst stage is because they do not possess the necessary genetic instructions for continued growth. No one can change or improve the genetics of an embryo. Assuming the lab is competent (and most are), there is no "risk" associated with continuing to culture the embryos to the blastocyst stage. We make the false assumption that the embryos are better off in your uterus on day 3. They're not. Under natural conditions, the embryo remains in the Fallopian tube until the fifth day of development (blastocyst stage). The uterine environment on day 3 is not the same as the Fallopian tubes. When sequential culture systems are employed to grow the embryos to the blastocyst stage, the conditions in the laboratory more closely resemble the Fallopian tubes. Therefore, the embryos are better off in the lab for day 4-5 of development.

The point of growing embryos to the blastocyst stage in the laboratory is to deliberately weed out the embryos that do not have the genetic potential for continued growth. If they're gonna make it, they do. If they don't, they don't. Of course, there's always the "risk" that no embryos make it to the blastocyst stage in the laboratory, but (because the problem is related to the genetics of the embryo, not culture conditions in the laboratory) they wouldn't have made in the uterus either.

PINEAPPLES & IVF TRANSFERS

Pineapple may help assist embryo implantation because it contains bromelain. This proteolytic enzyme breaks down proteins that can inhibit embryo implantation. For this reason you should consume a whole, organic pineapple after embryo transfer. Don't avoid eating the core as it has the highest concentration of Bromelain

IVF cycle: Slice up a whole, fresh, organic pineapple into five equal portions. Consume one portion daily for five days, beginning on the day of your embryo transfer.

September 29th TRANSFER DAY (The Buns are in the Oven)

Embryos being loaded into a transfer catheter.

September 29th, not only our 10th wedding anniversary but transfer day finally. The morning started out rainy cool and gloomy. We arrived at the clinic around 10:30am so I could make sure to drink more water and get my bladder super full. It was important to have it full so they could tell with ultrasound the shape of my uterus and where to release the embryo's. I think holding my pee for almost 2 hours and still not having a full enough bladder was the hardest part. I think I drank one smoothie, 3 bottles of water, and almost 2 sprites to get it full. The nurse joked it should feel like I am going to exploded and it's ok if I pee it's happened before. I was like oh great that would be so embarrassing. I had to concentrate on a spot on the ceiling half the time to hold my bladder.

My husband got to come back with me, he had to dress in a full suit, hat and booties. Reminded me of a smurf, then he sat down and blew a hole in the bottom of the suit, I was laughing so hard and trying to not pee at the same time.

The Dr. came in and told us we now have 12 that have made it to blastocyst, yesterday we had 9 but then a few caught up. We talked about how one was a grade A and full blastocyst and the others where considered B grade just cause they are a little behind but that didn't mean they where bad. We decided to to do the full one and one of the other one's. The remaining 10 will continue to grow till Friday and the one's who become full will be frozen as back up or if we want another child someday.

Finally they took us back to the room, everything is all sterile, I had to wear a gown, booties, hat and mask too. The lab has a door right next to the room I had to confirm my birthdate and how many embryo's we where transferring. My husband told them to tell the lab tec to make sure he picked out a good one that looked like a linebacker, it was funny.

One Dr. did the external ultrasound while the other did the transfer, we got to see it on the ultrasound screen the tube going in and then the burst of two little white things as they came out of the tube. The lab tec then checks the tube to make sure both of them came out and when we got the all clear the Dr. was able to empty my bladder with a catheter, talk about relief.

The nurse rolled me back into the recovery room where I had to lay flat and rest for at least 30min. Hubby and I talked and joked about our future kid. When we left the clinic the rain had stopped and the sun was out, they sky was blue and it had turned into a beautiful day :)

We tracked down some organic pineapple at a co-iop store, bought three just to make sure. Plan on eating lots of it as I'd do just about anything to encourage our little emby's to implant.

Now we wait, pray, rest, and pray some more that implantation takes place and we finally get our BFP!