Wow . . .

I have one word to summarize today: WOW . . .

Here is the story of our day in pictures. I'm working on a video montage and should have all of that uploaded tomorrow some time!

I'm so thankful for the prayers and thoughts. Noah woke up this morning fever-free and not coughing as much. He was able to go to our friends' place and had a blast playing with Ella aka "Eya." Here are Daddy and Noah getting ready to go . . .
This morning after I showered, I had a thought: what does one wear to get impregnated? Lingere, of course. I thought it would be really humorous/psycho to show up to the clinic in lingere announcing, "OK, I'm ready to get pregnant!" I went with this instead. Nothing special.

After a surprisingly traffic-free journey, we arrived . . .

Here is the process, step-by-step.

Step 1: Verify the procedure for which you are there. (FET=frozen embryo transfer)

Step 2: Pay the bill. (Notice the crossed-out $1,753.00)

Step 3: Get id bracelet.

Step 4: Change into what you really wear to get pregnant. Be sure to check out my socks--tread on both sides . . oh, yeah . . .

Step 5: Consult with nurse about discharge instructions. Consult with doctor about embryo numbers, procedure, etc. We were both so shocked that ALL THREE embryos from the first batch survived the thaw! The first words out of my mouth were, "What? I'm SHOCKED!" The doctor, (the "head" doctor of the clinic and not our regular doctor) said, "Well, I'm not. Our lab has gotten a lot better, and I don't see a frozen transfer any differently from a fresh transfer anymore." All I could say was, "WOW." I don't really know if he said anything else because I was so focused one thing: three. He left, and we had a few seconds of stunned silence followed by some nervous laughter. It needs to be mentioned that we shared a waiting room with a lady and her triplets--two boys and a girl. Chris said, "I wonder if the triplets were a sign?!?!"

Step 6: Go to the transfer room. Get creeped out by the mood lighting and "relaxing" background music. It was more like Alfred Hitchcock music.

Step 7: Talk to the lab director through this little window. He puts his masked face up to the window and offers us a "Hello." He asks for my name, DOB, and confirms that we are transfering three embryos. He then disappoints us by telling us the screen is not working so that we won't be able to see our embryos. :0( I was really looking forward to that. Our nurse Soonja is amazing. She, seeing our disapointment, says, "What do they look like? Are they pretty?" He says, "Yes, they are," and goes into a long explanation about how our 7-cell embryos are down to 6 from the thaw, and the 6-cell embryo was down to 3 cells from the thaw. He said it didn't matter at all as the cells "fill in" on their own.

Step 8: Get into position. (Sorry, no photos!) The doctor inserts the catheter into my uterus, and the lab director brings a really thin straw containing our tiny babies. The picture below is not going to make much sense, but the white line is the catheter. The last white bubble closest to the right side is an air bubble that was pushing the embryos into my uterus. It was SO COOL! I can't believe I don't remember any of this from last time! Chris sat by my side with his hand on my shoulder. He had to sit behind me, so that was as close as he could get.

Step 9: The lab director goes back to ensure that all of the embryos are out the straw. We thank the doctor over and over. He smiles, pats my shoulder, and says, "You're welcome." I want to be sure that he understands, so I tell him, "Chris has had cancer, and this is the only way for us. THANK YOU." We get the "OK" from the lab director, and so we change back into our clothes. We walk out of the clinic after scheduling a pregnancy test on May 1 at 8:30 am.

This is going to be a loooooooong wait. The doctor advised against doing a home test before the blood test, but I will probably break down and take a home test again.

We talked a lot on the way to pick up Noah. What are we going to do with three? We determined that we don't need to worry with that until we have the ultrasound in about a month. That will tell us the final number.

We picked up Noah, who was of course not acting the least bit sick. We decided to have lunch at Chic-Fil-A with Noah--we went to Chic-Fil-A after the transfer that gave us Noah, so it just seemed right this time, too. Noah didn't eat much (signs of his illness), but he had a good time people-watching at least.

I can't even count how many kisses this sweet face received the rest of the afternoon . . .