Here goes

This afternoon, we transferred one grade 4AB blastocyst. My clinic grades blasts as follows: The number grades the size of the blast from 1-6 (6 being the biggest). The letters go from A-D, with the first one referring to the part of the blast that will become the fetus, and the second letter referring to the part that will become the placenta.

So, translation: Today a nice young doctor put a pretty good-looking clump of cells into my uterus. We hope it'll decide to stay there.

It was pretty cool seeing the embryo on the monitor (we got a picture to take home too). Then the embryologist zoomed out so I could see the label on the dish with my name and my husband's name on it, and then so I could see the pipette drawing the speck of an embryo up into the catheter.

I've heard of other people wearing their lucky socks and such to their ET, but at my clinic they make you strip off even your socks (they give you hospital-issue socks that, mysteriously, have treads on both sides) before you go into the operating room. So I just wore whatever was comfy and could easily be stripped off and stuffed into a locker.

The hardest part, of course, was calibrating the "full bladder" required. I overestimated at first and was in agony before I got called back, so the nurse said I should just "let out a little" and then drink some more. Have you ever tried to pee "just a little"? Yeah, it's pretty much impossible. But then I chugged some more water and it all worked out, without my having to resort to a bedpan or being in agony.

The good thing about a day 5 transfer is that the 2ww is a lot shorter. Beta scheduled for next Saturday. Gulp.