Long Day

This morning we checked out of the hotel, put our stuff in the car, and walked around Prague for a couple more hours. At about 2:00 we left Prague and we arrive in Brno a little before 4:00.

We went first to a shopping center to buy gifts for Miran's Aunt Mimica, who happens to have a birthday today. Then we went to check into our hotel and put our suitcases in the room. Then we walked over to Miran's aunts' apartment, which happens coincidentally to be just three blocks from our hotel. We sat there for a couple hours and talked and had a wonderful dinner.

Then we came back to our car, which was by our hotel, and drove Miran's cousin Suzana and her son Nikolas home. Suzana showed us where to partk for free about a ten minute walk from our hotel, which was good because we'd basically left our car in a reserved spot and would have gotten a ticket in the morning.

When we finally made it back to our hotel room about 10:30 I put away all our stuff in the dresser and wardrobes and we had a snack and are now ready for bed. I will post pictures from today and tell you about our hotel and Brno tomorrow.

I called the nurse line today as instructed between 1:00 and 2:00 and learned that 4 of our embryos have 4 cells, 3 have 3 cells, and 1 has 2 cells. So that apparently means that 7 are growing on schedule and looking good and just one is developing a little slowly. I'll call again tomorrow to see how they are maturing. 

8 embryos!

I spoke briefly with the nurse today and learned we have 8 viable embryos. So this is really good news and we feel sure this is going to work.

Today was beautiful and we walked around Prague all day, with short stops in the Mucha Museum, Kafka Museum, and Museum of Communism. We were going to go to a chamber music concert in a church tonight, but were too tired and just came back to the hotel.

Here are a couple of pictures from today:

Doctor's Visit

We had our first doctor's appointment this morning and everything looks great. I had an ultrasound and all is well. Miran had some blood and other tests. We spent a lot of time in the waiting room and there were at least five other couples there, two were American, one from the UK, one from Ireland, and the others we didn't hear talking so don't know.

We also learned that the retrieved 12 eggs this morning and that 10 were viable. The fertilized those ten this afternoon. At 1:00 tomorrow we can call and they will tell us how many viable embryos we have. It seems highly likely we'll have 5 or 6 - which is exciting. So all plans are set for a transfer on day 5, which means next Saturday. But this is really exciting - they said they average 6-10 eggs retrieved, so we are very optimistic we'll have two really great ones. The doctor said if we transfer two eggs he estimates our odds of pregnancy at 70%.

And I got some additional medication (progesterone) that I'm supposed to take for the next 10 weeks! It is cheaper here so I bought a lot, and it comes in huge boxes, so I think we'll need to buy a new bag to get it home in!

Prague !

Here are a bunch of pictures from our walk this afternoon in Prague (and one at the end of my forehead scar so everyone can see how amazingly its healing - as everyone was commenting on it before).

First day in Brno

We had a long but uneventful travel day and arrived fine in Brno this afternoon.

The biggest excitement of the trip was deciding to upgrade a car class after seeing our rental car at the Prague airport. I had reserved the smallest, cheapest option and we were given a 10 year old Fiat that was really small and we couldn't figure out how to lock the doors and it just didn't look very reliable. So we went back in and asked for the next category up. So we ended up with a Skoda Fabia which is very comfortable. Miran did great on the drive and it took just about two hours like we thought. We had no trouble finding our hotel.

After we checked in we just washed our faces and immediately left to go over to Miran's aunt's house. We decided to walk because we'd been sitting for two days and it took about 20 minutes. So we got a quick overview of the city center and it seems really nice.

We ate dinner and talked with Miran's family for a few hours. It was really nice listening to stories about when Miran was 8 and 9 years old as well as to stories about Milada and her friends from when she was younger as well.

Here is a picture of Miran with his first cousins Suzana and Jasmin:

Here is Milada with Miran's two aunts and their father:

And here is me in the Charlotte airport at the very beginning of the trip: