The Kenny 13

Dr. W called to let us know that all 13 embryos made it to Day 2 and they are still growing strong! All are a Grade 1 or Grade 2 which means they have received the highest grades possible for embryos! Tomorrow we will go ahead and schedule our transfer. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the transfer will be on Sunday. Transferring on Sunday will get us to a Day 5 Blastocyst transfer. So, now we are just cheering the Kenny 13 on. Say it with me... "Go embies, go!".

I found these pictures that I thought were cool that show the embies development. If you feel like you are going back to your high school Biology class, now you know what we have felt like for months leading up to this IVF cycle! We keep calling this our "little experiment". I'm amazed by this process and will continue to be in awe of our little miracles everyday!

Day 1: Fertilization

Male and female genetic material (DNA) is in the 2 pronuclei (circles) in the center. This is what we see at the "fertilization check" the morning after the egg retrieval. Evidence of fertilization is shown by the presence of the 2 pronuclei. Without fertilization, the egg would look the same, but without any pronuclei.

Day 2: 2 cell embryo

Day 3: 8 cell embryoDay 4: Morula Stage
This is a compacting morula. There are many cells and the cell borders are becoming fuzzy as the embryo "compacts". With compaction it looks as though the cells are "melting together"
A morula contains about 10 - 30 cells. The morula stage is the final stage prior to formation of a fluid filled cavity called the blastocoel cavity.

Day 5: Blastocyst

A blastocyst is an embryo which has developed to the point of having 2 different cell components and a fluid cavity. Blastocyst transfers can give higher pregnancy success rates with very low risk of triplets.The cells which will become the fetus are in the area marked as "ICM" (inner cell mass)The blastocoel cavity in the center is marked as "C"The trophectoderm cells that will form the placenta surround the cavity - one is marked with a "T"