Time and again I find that I have selective memory. Case in point – the egg retrieval process. For some reason I thought that after my magic shot, in 36 hours the eggs would just “burst” from the follicles and all the doctor would have to do is suck them up with a turkey baster like instrument. NOT SO.

I was wondering why they offered me valium – finally a perk! – for something so simple. The valium came in pretty handy when the doctor put the IV in me for the local anesthesia. The procedure ramps up to the doctor using a sonogram to guide a needle to pierce and aspirate each of my honeycomb-like follicles to suck the eggs out. Apparently for most women this is only mildly uncomfortable. For me, it hurt due to my crazy hide & seek ovaries. You can watch on the screen as the needle pierces the follicle, collapses it, and then the follicle refills with fluid. Again with the mega bloat!

This was not fun, but the end result was successful. And Brian’s Superman underwear made all the difference. They retrieved 11 eggs, 9 of which were mature. Today we found out we have 7 little embryos dividing and growing!

We are set to go to Nova on Friday (day 3) to see if we will implant. Dr. Schmidt told us to come in with the expectation for Friday implantation. There is a chance, depending on the embryo quality, that we might wait until Sunday (day 5).

For now, I am drinking gallons of water to stay hydrated and get rid of this bloating. I am also trying not to spiral out of control thinking about dreadful “what ifs” for our embryos. Gotta stay positive – home stretch here we come!