More Pictures!

Here are a couple of portraits we took of Milada and Miran in our last few hours walking around Prague Wednesday morning. As you can see it got in the upper 50s and we took our coats off at times. It was a little awkward because it was at that temperature where walking around in winter coats was too hot, but not wearing a coat was a little chilly. But we aren't complaining - the weather has been unbelievable - sunny and mild every day. A little cool in the evenings.

We've also done a bit of sight seeing in Brno as well as spending time with family. Here are a couple of shots from the museum in the Spilberk fortress where we went today with Milada and Aunt Snjezana, a.k.a. Suna. She is Milada's former-sister-in-law. The fortress was used by the Hapsburg as a prison for centuries, so the picture of me is in one of the cells. The first picture is from a series of rooms where you could see excavations of the medieval walls - as most of what is visible now is from the 18th century and later.

When we returned from Prague on Wednesday we had dinner at Miran's Aunts' apartment again and here is another group shot. I am sitting with Aunt Jasminka, a.k.a. Mimica - who is Suna's sister and who was Maid of Honor at Milada's wedding. They were all friends in college. On Mimicia's lap is Nikolas, a.k.a. Niki, son of Miran's cousin Suzana (in the arglie). No one will be surprised to learn that another nephew has learned the charms of Uncle Miran - except here he is called Daidza (pronounced something like Die-Ja) - which means uncle on the mother's side. I'm Daidzica (Die-Jee-Ca).

Tonight we had dinner at Suzana's. Her husband Zoran was there as well, but he hasn't made it into a picture yet. We also spent a few hours yesterday walking around with Suzana and Zoran yesterday. Here is photo and a video of Miran playing soccer and horsing around with Niki after dinner tonight. Eventually the ball knocked a glass off the table causing a big mess and the game ended. Suzana was very patient. I thought the kids might enjoy the video of Uncle Miran and their very distant cousin!

Still eight!

Quick note to say that all eight of our embryos are still growing strong. One has 10 cells, 6 have 8 cells and 1 has 6 cells. So at least seven are in good shape. Apparently there is a 9th that only has 2 cells, so I guess he's a dud. But they only said there were eight the first day so we aren't too worried about we didn't even know there was a 9th! They don't check their status on the 4th day, so we can't call tomorrow, but it looks like everyone is doing well and we'll definitely have two good ones to put in on Saturday and a few to freeze for later!

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!