The real wait begins (yes, again)

Well, the babies-to-be are back home and now the real waiting begins. After much debate, discussion, thought and heartache, we decided to transfer only two embryos this time. Yes, yes, I know I said I couldn't be talked out of transferring three, but as a friend said, new information requires new decisions. When R and I went in this morning for the transfer, the lab told us that out of the seven that had fertilized, we had five embryos that were viable for freezing. Two of the seven had developed too much fragmentation and weren't viable any longer. If we transfered two, we could freeze three; if we transfered three, we would have two for freezing. The lab had hatched two embryos already and were waiting for our final decision on how many to transfer before hatching a possible third. The RE doing the transfer said that the two that had already hatched were near-perfect and looked great so he would recommend transferring only those two and freezing the other three. I said that I really wanted three and so R, I and the RE discussed it. The RE gave me the usual rundown with the statistics and I told him that after how terrible the last cycle was, I was very gun shy about our success rates. He told me that on average, it takes 1.75 cycles of IVF to get a pregnancy so by being on my second cycle, I was right about where I was 'supposed to be' in the grand scheme of IVF. Because of this average and how the embryos looked, he was still sticking with the two versus three argument. I was still leaning towards three and when he asked me why, I broke down in tears. The RE said that if I really wanted it, they were my embryos and he wouldn't refuse, so he asked R and I if we needed some time to discuss it. The RE and nurses left and R and I talked it over. In the end, I made the final decision with my head rather than my heart. I know it is more dangerous to transfer three embryos than two because of the likelihood of a high-order multiple pregnancy. I never wanted a triplet pregnancy, I just want a successful cycle. Plus, having only five embryos to work with was a lot less than we had originally hoped for. If we transfered three, we would only have two to freeze; the survival rate after thawing is about 70% and we would run the risk of having only one, possibly two if we're lucky, to work with after thawing if we have to do this again with a 'frozen' cycle. So, R & I agreed that two was the best option for us at this point. He asked me if I was going to be alright with the decision and I said yes. New information leads to new decisions. I'll agree that it threw me for a loop not being able to transfer three, but I think it was the right thing to do with what we had to work with.

And so, I'm in another two week wait. My beta is scheduled for January 23. Funny to think that my first cycle beta was supposed to be on 11/23... exactly two months ago. 23 is my lucky number. That luck better hold out this time.