2DP3DT: Luteal Day 6

J finally scanned the pics of the embies at work yesterday. There are four 8 celled, one 9 celled, and one 10 celled embryos. The top two are 8's, the next 2 are, left to right, a 9 and an 8, and the bottom two are, left to right again, an 8 and a 10 celled embie. I don't know how they can tell after about 7. But my favorite one is the upper left. It looks a bit like a flower.
:-)

Last night J didn't get home from a gig in Salinas til nearly 1:30AM or 2:00AM, and didn't get to bed until 3:30AM (surfing the internet til the wee hours of the morning as usual). I woke him at 8:30AM to do my PIO shot. He groggily rolled over and stuck my left hip like an expert and then went right back to bed. How he has learned to accomodate this infertility regimine into his life. J, mind you, who near to faints at the sight of blood, who can't watch a phlebotomist stick him in his own arm, now is able to stick ME in the hip without being fully awake or without contact lenses in. I have to say I am totally in awe at his transformation.

So we're at two full days past transfer. According to Advanced Fertility in Chicago implantation should be right around the corner:

When does implantation actually occur in IVF or normal cycles? (We're not focusing on the "window" anymore, but on when real implantation does occur)

A very good study of implantation was published in 1992 by Bergh & Navot.

They studied 33 pregnancies from ovum donation or frozen-thawed cycles with serial HCG levels on the mothers to find the time of "first embryonic signal". The HCG assay used can detect very low levels.

Average first detection was at an embryonic age of 7.1 +/- 0.28 days (range 6.6-7.4 days).

This correlates with the studies of Hertig and Rock in the 1950's (hysterectomy studies) that showed the day of implantation to be day 6.

They did not find any evidence to support the concept of an embryonic diapause in humans.

So according to the above excerpt, the earliest we could expect this festive event to kick off would be tomorrow,(Sunday) and the far edge should be later Monday afternoon. Dr. Moustache thought it likely that I had a very early implantation failure last time due to my HCG not being "0" at beta #1, so maybe my little guys try to implant earlier rather than later? The studies mentioned above might be a bit more interesting if they had looked at implantation rates against variability of cell numbers of blastocysts and morulas. Obviously a 10+ cell blast is going to implant sooner than a 5 cell blast.

Don't cha just love data?

Interestingly enough, and maybe it's the power of suggestion, that whole body-mind thing, but I've got some cramping going on today. It comes and goes, but doesn't really mimic the posts I've seen of precisely placed pain right above the pube bone. But of course I'm totally focused on this and am laying low for a few more days. It's still day 5, so a bit early for me to freak out.

But that won't stop me.