Day Three Report

Our Day Three Report is in. Of the eleven embryos that fertilised normally, all are still hanging in there, but nine of them are within the range of cells they like to see at this point. Three-day embryos should contain between six and ten cells, eight being ideal. Here's the breakdown:

2 at 10 cells
4 at 8 cells
2 at 7 cells
1 at 6 cells
2 at 4 cells

The four-cell embryos haven't reached the appropriate milestone for three days, so they only have a 15% chance of developing further. The other nine, on top of being within the necessary range, also have very little fragmentation, which is positive.

I asked for a comparison of last cycle's embryos; according to the embryologist, it looks as though these ones are slightly better, both on cell-count and quality, but we really just don't know how well they'll continue to grow. Anything could happen between now and Monday/Tuesday. We'll get the big call on Tuesday with news of how many made it to the blastocyst stage and were biopsied. A blast contains between sixty and one hundred cells. CCRM wait until Day Six to call because some embryos take six days, rather than five, to develop into blasts. The agonising wait continues, but we're happy with today's report.

Thanks to everyone for their lovely comments and for sending good vibes to our hard-working embies. Please keep the vibes coming.....