Thank You, Interwebs!

That "grow, follie, grow" mojo of yours seems to have worked - and almost worked a little too well.

But, let me start at the beginning. . . .

After being late to our last two mointoring appointments, we were determined to make it on time this morning.

(ha ha ha)

We did wake up on time, but something happened along the way and we left home about 10 minutes late.

Not a big deal, though, right.

Then, we're cruising down the interstate, about five miles from the BlueState/DocState line, when the traffic stops.

Eventually we got to signs saying there was a wreck ahead, and they diverted us onto another road at Exit 3, sent us down it for a while, running more or less parallel to the interstate, and then let us back on a bit into DocState. We never did actually see the wreck. I hope it wasn't as bad as the traffic jam suggested.

At some point, we called down to the clinic to let them know that we'd be like an hour late. Grrr.

We finally got there and, after a bit of a wait, we were ready to go. The ultrasound tech was very nice and we were talking and laughing about traffic delays as she was starting the camming, when a doctor came in.

The doctor was a boy, which we weren't thrilled about, but he was very nice. Somehow, we started talking about names, and then about books, and specifically audiobooks and audible.com and the whole time the tech is just a cammin' and a clickin' - measuring those follicles.

Finally, she removes the wand, turns the screen toward us all and says, "Um, you guys, I hate to interupt and distract you from your conversation, but we have a cycle happening here . . . . "

Of course, we all turned our attention to the numbers on the screen and started checking out the follicle sizes.

Previously on Lucy & Ethel Make a Baby, Shrike had one follicle at 15 mm yesterday, and the next largest were around 13.5 mm.

Follicles usually grow 1 - 2 mm/day.

This morning, she had four larger than 18 mm. Wow-ee!

We got a print-out of the measurements this time. The largest thirteen are:

Right Ovary: 18.6, 18.6, 18.2, 18.1, 17.3, 16.6, 16.2
Left Ovary: 17.2, 16.1, 15.8, 15.0, 14.6, 13.8

After she got dressed they sent us to talk to a nurse for our triggering instructions, because depending on her estrogen levels, we might trigger tonight for retrieval on Monday, or might do one more day of stims and trigger tomorrow for retrieval on Tuesday.

We were hoping for Tuesday because, as I said yesterday, that will be more convenient with our work schedules.

We had lunch, came home and I took a nap while Shrike walked the dogs.

The call-back from the nurse woke me from my nap, so I was a bit fuzzy-headed when talking to her, and didn't think to ask how many follicles they saw in all, but as they said yesterday, there are probably some hiding anyway. So, we'll assume it's still in the mid-20s.

Her estrogen is at 1687, which isn't too high yet, so they want us to go ahead and wait another day and trigger tomorrow.

Yippee! Perfect timing!

Tonight, she'll get 75 units of Gonal-F and 1/2 vial of Menopur again, in the morning 10 units of Lupron and we'll monitor at 11:30 am.

Then we'll get a call-back with our actual triggering instructions, including the exact time to do the HCG shot (IM in the butt, that will be the first of those that I've given to her), and the time for the retrieval itself on Tuesday.

What happens after that?

Before we leave on Tuesday, all the fluid extracted from her follicles will go to an embryologist, who will find and count the eggs and let us know how many we got.

Then, they will thaw Popeye's boys, pick out the best of the bunch, and ICSI one into each egg.

On Wednesday and Thursday, they'll call us with fertilization reports.

Friday they'll biopsy the embryos (remove one cell from each) for the preimplantation genetic testing (PGD), which takes a day or two.

Possibly Saturday, but more likely Sunday morning, the embryologist will give us a call with PGD results, and we'll transfer on Sunday, likely around noon or early afternoon.

The plan is to transfer two good-looking embryos or, if that's not possible, three crappy ones.

I'll be on bedrest for about twenty-four hours after that, and then we wait, wait, wait for two weeks.

If my calculations are correct, my beta should be Monday March 24 - the day after Easter.

Since our two-week-wait will be happening over the Easter season, this cycle's nom de utero will be . . . The Peeps!

And any embryos that don't make the cut this cycle, but are frozen for possible later use will be, of course, . . . Peepsicles!