"Sciency" Details and Other Results

Moments ago, Kristina received the first phone call from the clinic to give the Day-1 report on the embryos. There will be some potentially icky details, but I promise no pictures. I say this because Kristina and I jest about making a baby in front of her mother yesterday. So, there are some really good puns to be had right now.
 

Anyway, as mentioned yesterday, Dr. Reshef was able to retrieve fifteen eggs from Kristina’s ovaries. I may have forgotten to mention that eight to twelve eggs are average for most women undergoing this procedure. On the other side of the scalpel, I produced around four million cells, which is also above average for this method of extraction. So, perhaps we are just overachievers.
 

However, my “motility” was a little below what they would have liked to see, but it was not considered a problem. They simply had a swimming contest to judge which of the four million guys got to wear crowns. There may have been a muscle-flexing portion too, but I’m not well-versed on the exact rules in the Mr. Sperm competition. In addition to the “winners,” the lab also froze two vials, which comes out to 2 million per vial if my math is correct. This is just a precaution, likely not needed, but those guys will be available in the future should things take an unexpected turn.
 

But here’s the important news! Of the fifteen eggs, ten of them were mature enough to fertilize. After the lab-style insemination, one became poly-nucleated, which basically means that egg got “too much” genetic information and is not a viable candidate. Additionally, there was one other fertilized egg that did not survive the process.
 

What this means (and those good at math already know) is we have eight healthy and viable embryos continuing to grow in their incubators. Tomorrow we get another report, where cell-division count becomes important as well does symmetrical division. Grading will begin soon, but this means the Top-2 candidates will be selected next Tuesday and transferred back into Kristina for attachment.
 

We have very good odds at this time. However, it is still “odds” and there is much yet to be done. Please continue to keep us (and the embryos) in your thoughts and prayers.