Keep the good news coming.

It always feels like the last few days of these cycles go by so darned quickly. And then the torturous beta-waiting begins. Gosh, how many more times in my life am I going to have to say that?

The ultrasound this morning went pretty well: there are currently 14 follicles hanging out and about 15 more in the wings. The better news is that my stripe is looking so much better this cycle too: it’s a very nice 6.4mm right now. The RE called this afternoon to discuss some of the results from this cycle so I had the chance to asked him about the stripe. He told me what it was and said that he expects that it will get a little thicker in the next few days too. He was more pleased with the fact that it’s trilaminar, but I still like seeing that number higher than the usual 5.4mm. I also got to ask him about my estrogen levels, since I’m not getting blood taken anymore. I know that my levels are artificially inflated right now because of the little blue pills, but I’ve been wondering if the estrogen was contributing to how many follicles are developing. The RE told me it’s actually the other way around: the more follicles you have, the higher the estrogen. So right now he’s not concerned about hyper-stimulation which is good to hear. 14 follicles after only six days of medications had me a little worried.

The nurse who called to book my ultrasound for tomorrow freaked me out a bit when she said that the RE was considering triggering me tomorrow night. First of all, my largest follicle was 17mm by 16mm, and the other 13 were all around 11mm or 12mm. They usually like to see at least four of them around 15mm before they trigger, so I asked the RE about it and he said that while nothing is out of the realm of possibility, he thinks I’ll probably trigger on Sunday or Monday. Which is perfectly fine with me. I’d like to see the follicles mature a bit more and sacrifice that one larger one for the sake of the other 13.

He also finally reviewed my files and saw that I had authorized him to transfer three embryos this time instead of the two he suggested. I knew it would set off alarms when he saw that, which is sort of why I did it in the first place. We’d talked about how many to transfer with the last cycle, but I wanted to revisit the conversation in light of all that we learned last cycle. Since we think we’re working with an embryo quality problem, R and I would like to increase our chances by transferring three, not two, this time. The RE thinks that’s way too risky, given my age and the fact that I’ve already had one healthy baby. He thinks that we should stick with two, but he also mentioned that he wouldn’t completely refuse to transfer three if it’s what we want. Which is different than what he said last month. So now I’m wondering how many we’ll transfer. Something to think about…

We also had a chance to talk about doing a day three transfer versus a day five. When I said “We’re doing a day three transfer this time regardless of how many we fertilize, right?” he said that he’s discussed it with the lab and they disagree and think we should wait it out again. Um. No. Not going to happen. Even if we get 20 eggs fertilized, we’re not going to push it this time, especially since we had no luck with near-perfect embryos the first time around. Sign me up for a day three transfer and make the lab do their work and pick the best three of the group. That’s why I’m paying them the big bucks, man.

So, I’m in the final stretch. Hard to believe that another two months have gone by since the last time I was here. I’m feeling much calmer this time around. Sure, I’m still anxious, but it’s not the same as the first time. I’m not sure if it’s because I know what to expect or if it’s because I feel like it’s going to work. Either way, that positive beta on January 23 can’t come soon enough.