Frost Babies

Natalie mentioned last week that we had 9 embryos fertilize and three were implanted. The other six were allowed to mature for a couple of days and two of those remaining six progressed to the blastocyst stage and were frozen for future attempts at implantation. In the online community these are often referred to as "frost babies."

It is a pretty good sign that we had two left to freeze, because it means that the three that were implanted in Natalie were also likely to progress to blastocysts and hopefully implant. While it is nice to have two frost babies now (we also have two frost babies in Utah from our IVF attempt there last August) - what we really want are classic babies, you know- the real living, breathing, crying type.

We have been waiting now for 5 days, but it seems like 5 months. The first four days were really great and we just had this great feeling that the IVF was going to be successful and that 1, 2 or 3 babies would be joining our family. Last night though, Natalie started to feel scared. What if it didn't work? Just the thought was terrifying after everything that she put her body through over the last three weeks.

Then she started to over think things. "Am I worried because I'm not pregnant, or because its natural to worry?" "Is the worry itself a sign that it didn't work?"You see, the last 24 hours and the next 48 hours are absolutely critical because if the embryos are going to implant they have either already implanted or will be implanting in the next day. So she is just wondering, "do I feel different yet?" "If not, why not?" "Was this another failed attempt?"

I'm a big believer in the power of positivity and that it can often shape our outcomes in ways we can't predict, so for now- we are just going to visualize everything turning out ok. Imagine the pregnancy results coming back as positive and nine months from now holding a baby in our arms. It is hard to imagine after so many years of disappointment, but we are hoping this time is our chance.