Fertilization Results + {final post for a while}

Well, as most of you already know, they were able to retrieve 17 eggs from me on Thursday! Those are great results. I was so happy & relieved to get those out of me. My right ovary was so big and uncomfortable — my RE came into the room before retrieval and she said I looked so miserable — which I was. In all, I had 36 shots prior to egg retrieval & it definitely broke my “needle-phobia” — infertility will do that to ya. My belly was full of bruises {still is}.

I spent the rest of the day after retrieval laying around and resting. I was in some pain, but not unbearable. The biggest mistake I made was going to work the next day — or thinking that I could & would be fine. I was still in quite a bit of pain & could hardly walk.

The nurse called me with the fertilization results around 10:30am on Friday….and….

We are absolutely thrilled & ecstatic with these results and know how truly, truly blessed we are to have these results. It will allow us to freeze the embryos we don’t use for future use or if this cycle doesn’t work.

Sadly, this will be my final blog post for a while. My husband & I have made the decision to not share publicly {our journey} from this point forward. We aren’t sharing the number of embryos we are transferring or when the transfer date is. It is important to us that if we do have success, we want to celebrate privately & won’t be announcing prior to the end of the first trimester. We have been on this emotional rollercoaster for 2+ years of infertility & if pregnant we really want to enjoy the moment and how blessed we are. And, if this cycle doesn’t work, we want to grieve privately and think about what happens next. I would never wish IVF on anyone. It was a rough, rough 5-6 weeks between injections @ home, MULTIPLE office visits, side effects, etc, but we know how much this journey is worth it.

We want to thank EVERYONE {family + friends} for the continuous prayers & support. Please know, without any of you, we could not have made it through this journey. The constant outpouring of support meant the world to us and has helped us tremendously – just knowing that you are thinking of us is amazing. Please continue to pray for us as we don’t know what the future will hold for us these next few weeks.

We love you ALL! And wishing you all HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

XO,

Erin & Matt