And there were 11.........

Today's appointment went so well!  My nurse found 6 follicles on my right ovary, most fairly large and 5 more on my left ovary!!!  I was shocked and the nurse was also surprised!  Some of the follicles on the left were smaller in size, but for my ovaries to have responded in this way is simply amazing!! 
Now, what you need to know is that not every follicle will have an egg inside it.  I would imagine that some of the smaller follicles, especially in the left, will be empty.  The nurse said that several of the follicles on the right looked good, which was encouraging to me.
I can not get over the fact that there are 11 follicles!  When we did this the first time, 2 years ago, I only had 9 follicles which became 6 eggs at "harvest time".  I was fully prepared to have fewer follicles this time.  In fact, I prayed as I waited for the nurse to come in and do the scan and asked God for 5-7 follicles.  I feel so blessed!
The nurse said at this point, the plan is to proceed with egg retrieval on Wednesday.  I will go back Monday for another set of labs and a another scan to monitor my follicles and verify that we will be doing egg retrieval on Wednesday.  When they retrieve the eggs, I will be sedated, like a surgery.  They use a needle vaginally to aspirate the eggs from the follicles in the ovaries.  I will be on bed rest for a few days after, to recover from the surgery. 
When they remove the eggs, they will fertilize them with the sperm immediately.  They directly fertilize the eggs by injecting the sperm into each egg.  The embryologist will call me that afternoon to tell me how many eggs have been successfully fertilized.  They will then call me every day after that to let us know how many eggs "make it" from one day to the next.
At day 5, the embryo is known as a blastocyst.  This is when they will transfer the embryos back into my uterus.  In nature, the embryo reaches the top of the uterus at day 5, and research has shown that tranferring the embryos at day 5 is most successful.  I will be on bed rest again for a few days after embryo transfer, just to relax and allow the embryo(s) to "dig in" and get attached.
Our pregnancy test will be 8 loooooong days after transfer!!   It's the longest week of my life, waiting to take that pregnancy test!
I will continue to post as I get updates and information, but I thought I would give you a glimpse of what the next couple weeks are going to be like for us.  So far, I really don't feel terrible.  I'm very uncomfortable because of the bloating from my ovaries making so many eggs, but I'm not complaining!  I'll take this uncomfortable feeling as long as necessary if it means I will get to have a baby!