Last night we flew back to England. Not just me and D, we had a little extra something on board.
Sunday me and D went up to Gothenburg for the transfer. Driving up in pouring rain we were still anxiously waiting to hear the status of our acrobats. I was under the impression the clinic would call us at eleven (an hour before our appointment) to let us know. But eleven came and went and the cell phone was quiet. D tried to make me call them but I refused. Until I realized we were going to be a few minutes late. I dialed the number. And got the answering machine!
At 12.05 we spun into the parking lot, ran to the locked front door but managed to slid in behind a couple that just got buzzed in. Nurse Inga was waiting for us inside. After apologizing for our tardiness I bombarded her with questions: "Do we have any good looking emryos? Will we get to do a transfer today? Do we have anything for the freezer?" She just smiled and said: "You're here aren't you? We would've called by eleven if there had been bad news." I let out a big sigh of relief and then I asked her another thousand or more questions. She asked me to be patient until Doctor Doodle could tell us the details.
I changed into the fabulous circus costume (gown, socks and hair net) and the doc arrived before I finished buttoning up. He started telling us what we already knew but with some added details. All my eight eggs had been mature and Ds swimmers extracted from the testies had all looked normal and healthy. Five out of the eight eggs had fertilized. He then continued by telling us the news we'd been dying to hear. He said four of the five fertilized eggs had divided nicely, two had slowed down Saturday but there was still a chance they would continue to develop and be ready to freeze on day six, and two had reached blastocyst stage Sunday morning. One to transfer and one for the freezer. Great news!! Doctor Doodle said he was very pleased with the result and told us we should have a good chance of success.
He asked us if we were ready and then we all walked into the theatre. We met Kristina the Embryologist and I got up on the stirrup throne. As I lay there with the ultrasound wand on my belly I heard Kristina the Embryologist open a door and shuffle something around before she exclaimed: "Oh, my goodness". My heart skipped a beat and I envisioned a smashed petri dish with our precious blastocyst splattered on the floor. Then the live feed from the lab came up on the screen and Doctor Doodle echoed: "Oh, my!". And there it was, our little acrobat.
Doctor Doodle explained that this is what they like to see and that our blastocyst was at a perfect stage to transfer. He pointed out the gray mass forming on the top right inside the circle and said it was a good sign. Without further ado he then inserted the catheter, Kristina the Embryologist came in with our acrobat and then the transfer happened. He showed us the drop of nutritional fluid containing the embryo on the ultrasound and when Kristina the Embryologist had made sure the catheter was empty he told us we were free to go. They both wished us the best of luck and on our way out Nurse Inga told us to "break a leg".
We were in and out of the clinic in less than half an hour. I felt like everything had happened at warp speed and had to take a moment with D before we started our two hour drive back. We kissed and shared a nervous laugh and then just sat in silence for a few minutes listening to the radio. On the way home I got this intense feeling of calm happiness and a single thought appeared in my mind: "Välkommen lilla frö". It's swedish and translates loosely to "Welcome home little acrobat".
Now all we can do is keep our fingers tightly crossed and wish for a miracle. Hatch, attach and grow, little acrobat, grow!
