Eight Is Enough?

Yesterday I had my first u/s of this cycle and learned that I have 8 follicles--4 on each side. This number sounded low to me given what I've heard from other people that have done IVF. My doctor was also surprised based on my age. At 32 she would have expected closer to double that number. In general, eight of anything sounds like a lot to me--my husband is one of eight kids which sounds like a ton of work for his dear mother, eight day vacation seems long enough, eight cups of water in a day is a lot to consume for me, etc. But, yesterday eight sounded really measly. I had it in my head that she'd find twenty plus follicles since I've responded well to medicine in the past and my FSH levels are good. She said that eight is not a poor number but is on the lower side. There's a small chance that there are itty bitty follicles hiding from the u/s wand but I'm not holding my breath.

Yes, it does only take one but given the odds are stacked against me I need as many rolls of the dice as I can get. Plus, I'd really like to freeze some little follies for future use to avoid having to do more than one retrieval.

Eight will have to be enough. My body has decided that's all it wants to give me this cycle. Maybe they will all be all-stars. For now since there's not much I can do I will try to stay positive and pray they all do well over the next 10 days of stimulation and through the fertilization process.

I start the dreaded three injections tonight. I'm learning that I am much stronger than I thought I was but I still wail like a baby each time. I'm sure my neighbors are wondering what is going on every night at 10pm...