Transfer Day!

Doing some back tracking here so I can document the sweet stuff.

Preparing for transfer day, with Jessi living out of state in Ohio, required a lot of strategy. It could have been a hot mess without the care and attention of our fertility doctor and her staff, which thankfully made the whole endeavor unravel seamlessly. Jessi worked with Aimee, our doctor here in San Ramon, via phone and email, dialing in her protocol, which included a cocktail of hormones and scheduled monitoring appointments that would take place in Ohio. These appointments mostly consisted of seeing how Jessi was responding to her medications based on the thickness of her lining, while also making sure everything was ideal for transfer (no fluid in her pelvis, etc.)

Once we nailed down a date that was best suited for transfer, we purchased Jessi’s plane tickets and shortly after she flew into SFO and landed in CA for the first time ever! We had that day to show her what we could of California’s glory. We walked around Pier 39, laughed at the sea lions, got a good glimpse of the Golden Gate bridge, and marveled at the rolling hills, all the while talking about how unreal it was that she was here, and that in just a short time we could find out we were going to be parents.

I was so nervous the next day, pacing around as we waited to leave, filled with so much angst, excitement, and expectation. When we arrived at the facility 30 minutes early, I was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere; it was calm, colorful, and soothing. Nothing like the cold sterile environments you normally associate with medical offices. And we got called right back! We were greeted by the calm presence and loving embrace of Dr. Aimee and before I knew it we were all huddled in the procedure room about to make history.The assistants in the room were so sweet and everyone was very congratulatory, as if our baby was already known to us. There was so much love and expectation in the room, so much unity. My heart swelled and I was so thankful. I had no idea what to expect from this experience, but it ended up being so redemptive and a true gift to us.

They pulled up a magnified picture of our unthawed embryo, our shining star, on the screen. It was strange looking, almost like a bubble filled with lots of tiny bubbles inside. Or maybe a planet...something other worldly. It was abstract, and amazing, and the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Seconds later, as Ryan and I held each other close, hands intertwined, we watched as our little embryo floated across the screen and into Jessi’s uterus and into our hearts, like it was floating though space, suspended by gravity. We couldn’t stop smiling.

We all felt it. We had just created life, all of us together.

We left praying the same prayer we had been praying for years; “God please bless us with a child.”