God has been so good to us once again! I woke up this morning with incredibly sore ovaries and pretty strong cramps, but the pain is definitely manageable. Whatever the anesthesiologist put in my IV yesterday to cure my headache and nausea has kept it away indefinitely. She is an angel!

I am now taking daily progesterone shots in the muscle to plump up my uterus and prepare ideal living conditions for the babies we will (hopefully) be transferring on Friday. These are the first shots I’m not allowed to give myself. I had to place a lot of trust in my husband this morning while he jabbed me in my backside with a giant needle I couldn’t even see. Shockingly, it didn’t really hurt at all. The progesterone is in oil form though, so the nurse said that by tomorrow I will feel like I got punched in the booty. He has to massage the cheek for a minute after he gives the shot to spread out the oil. It’s quite romantic. Although we have known each other for 12 years, our relationship has soared to new heights of comfortability during this process.

After the shot, we anxiously awaited the call with with the fertilization report. The doctor told us he felt confident that we would not do any better than 50% fertilization because of all of my conditions. The phone rang and I took a deep breath and told Matt to mute the Sportsman’s channel. I’m pretty tired of hearing people whisper to each other in deer stands anyway.

The nurse was on the other end of the phone. First she wanted to go through all of my symptoms and chit chat. I tried to be polite, but I was dying inside. Then she hit me with it.

They harvested 22 eggs yesterday. My doctor said he believed between 13 and 15 were mature. As it turns out, the embryologist confirmed that NINETEEN were mature!!!! AMAZING!

Then she hit me with the miracle of the century. SIXTEEN of those nineteen eggs fertilized and turned into embryos. That is 84%, ladies and gentlemen (I don’t think too many of those ready this blog :)). SIXTEEN little Pipplets (Thanks to Ali Solino for coining that term) are growing in the lab right now.

I just can’t believe it. I am overwhelmed, emotional, grateful, etc. I am trying to allow myself to feel all of these emotions. I’m so cautious to get excited, because I know we still have a long way to go. It is inevitable that many of these embryos will stop growing before Friday. The doctor says he thinks we will be lucky if 30% of these little guys and gals survive until transfer day. That would leave us with 4 embryos if we’re lucky, but our little babies have already defied statistics once and they’re only 1 day old.

Because I believe that life begins at conception, I’m rejoicing in the fact that we have 16 little babies growing. This is farther than we have EVER gotten before, and that’s certainly something to smile about. They will not call us with another update until Wednesday morning. I have to find a way to occupy my mind until then. I know it’s all in God’s hands now, and I trust that it will play out according to His will. We’ve put in the work and the hard part is over with. Now I just keep repeating a phrase I took away from 19 years of Catholic school: “Let go and let God.”

It’s still super early, but I haven’t developed any symptoms of OHSS yet. Let’s hope this continues. If all goes well, I could be pregnant by Friday. WOW!!!! Let’s let that sink in for a little bit.

Once again, I want to humbly thank each of you from the bottom of my heart. Your prayers have uplifted me along this journey, and it’s obvious that God is listening. Keep them coming! We are really in the home stretch now.

NOTE: THIS IS NOT A PICTURE OF OUR EMBRYO. We will get pictures of our embryos Friday. However, this is a picture of what our embryos look like this morning. The slightly smaller inner circle would be the 23 chromosomes I contributed to the embryo, and the slightly larger inner circle would be the 23 chromosomes Matt contributed to the embryo. Within the next 3 hours, the 2 circles will come together and join chromosomes, forming one nucleus of 46 chromosomes. It will look like this:

By 2p.m., each embryo will already have his or her own DNA. How amazing is that? I actually cried when I looked at this picture this morning. I’d like to blame it on the hormones, but I’m just THAT happy to know our babies have made it to this stage. I’ll update y’all on Wednesday when I know more. Until then, I’m off to fill up on Gatorade and V8.

Grow little Pipplets, grow!