We Can't Help But Count Our Eggs Before They Hatch

Tom and I were e-mailing back and forth yesterday about some house stuff. We usually text but we will occasionally e-mail. I was working in another tab on my browser but saw that I had an email notification in the gmail tab. I assumed it was Tom. Instead it was our agency.

"Very Good News. Yestarday was the retrival , the doctor takes 18 eggs, 15 mature. Thomas 8 embryos on day 1. Jonh 5 embryos on day 1. Tomorrow we will see how continue."

(Note, their English is MUCH better than my Spanish.)

I was shocked. We originally thought that our egg retrieval was on Wednesday but then we were told that it had been moved to Friday. By the time we were even paying attention, the eggs had been retrieved and fertilized! We talked, we texted, we had a mini-celebration.

Something new had been created. On day one (Wednesday) the embryos consisted of one cell. This was already day two! The little sparks already have a few cells and are hanging out in a dish in a lab. Day 5 (Sunday) is a big day. Day 5 is usually when the embryos will break out of their shells. This is also the day that they will be transferred into their gestational surrogates in the hope of pregnancy. This short video will explain that:

1/3 to 1/2 of these little embryos will statistically not make it to day 5. It is possible that none of them will. This is a really precarious time. I told Tom that the saying "don't count your eggs until they have hatched" has never been more appropriate. 

That being said, we can't help but count our embryos every day and pray for good news. 

Here is a picture of Tom still smiling after being questioned by a federal agent about wiring funds to Mexico. He looks suspicious! And handsome!