Early scan - scared

Westchestercat

Hi all-

Had an early scan where the baby measured 6 + 2. Very scared because the doc said the heart rate was slower than he likes (only 103). Said odds were in our favor, but it still scared me. Any success stories? Thus is my first pregnancy

sweetpea2003

103 is not slow for 6w2d. The heart starts beating right at the start of the 7th week (6w) and has to start somewhere. I would honestly be shocked to see a heartbeat in the 140-160 range at 6w2d.

Why did you have such an early u/s? Your doctor is wrong to say it is "slower" than it should be. Absolutely wrong.

Westchestercat

Hi sweet pea. Thanks for your encouragement

Great question about the early scan. Well, candidly I was just too anxious. I thought i was 6+6 so expecting a 7 wk scan. but I measured only 6+2 (not sure if this is a big deal). In retrospect, I should have waited for the scan

sweetpea2003

4 days isn't a huge deal, necessarily. Was your expectation based on LMP or charting ovulation?

Yes, hindsight being 20/20, you probably should have waited unless you had some other symptom (bleeding, sharp side pain, shoulder pain, etc) that was concerning.

I had an ultrasound at 5w4d with my son. They saw a gestational sac and yolk sac and I left the u/s place happy. Later my OB calls and said she was concerned that there was no h/b. I had to remind her that it was an extremely early u/s and a heartbeat would have been unusual. She was like "oooh yea, you're only 5 and a half weeks. Sorry!!".

My loss history (3 10-12 week losses, 2 early chemical pregnancies) means that my OBs usually treat me with kid gloves in the first trimester. However, when having ultrasounds between 4 and 7 weeks, you have to really give yourself a break and not jump to any damning conclusions. Early ultrasounds and beta series often just cause anxiety because you go and google and compare yourself to thousands of other women and even if you are perfectly average, not having rock star numbers or seeing  a heartbeat prior to 6 weeks, or seeing a slow heartbeat at 6w, puts people into a tailspin.

I have an u/s tomorrow to just rule out ectopic (my betas are fine, but again, kid gloves) and all we want to see is gestational sac in my uterus. By LMP I am going to be 5w5d, but I'm pretty sure I ovulated on the early side and am probably closer to 6w. I'm still not expecting to see a hb and will be shocked if I do.

marathonmommy82

WhoCanItBeNow said:

Westchestercat said:

Hi sweet pea. Thanks for your encouragement Great question about the early scan. Well, candidly I was just too anxious. I thought i was 6+6 so expecting a 7 wk scan. but I measured only 6+2 (not sure if this is a big deal). In retrospect, I should have waited for the scan

Unless you have some other history going on, you had no reason for a 7 week scan either.

This.

I don't understand all the really early scans... unless there is a medical reasons, they seem to freak people out.

BkBaby118

Because of past losses, my OB has had me in for ultrasounds at 5, 7, 9, 11, and will have one next week! (I'm in my 12th week, and had my 1st tri screen/NT last week.) The heart rate was 114 bpm at 7w1d, so yours sounds fine to me. 103 bpm at 6 weeks doesn't seem alarming to me, especially if your doctor said it looks fine. But good luck!!

GinnyJ2012

With my first I had an early scan because of cramping and pain in my right side. Baby measured at just over 6 weeks and had a low 100's HR. I don't remember the exact numbers. At my next appointment at 12 weeks baby's HR was 160's.

From my experience, and what has been explained to me, the HR starts slow the first week or so it starts beating and then speeds up. It then slows down again later in pregnancy.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!

PrimRoseMama

Your doctor is off base. The heart begins to beat at 6 weeks. If your baby's heart just got started then that is not slow.

Jenrileysmom

The doctor I went to for my last pregnancy used HCG level testing and once you were passed a certain level (I think 10k) would schedule an ultrasound. I had never heard of doing the blood draws every other day before that and it freaked me out because of course my levels weren't going up as fast as they should and I never did make it to the level I was supposed to. They did an early ultrasound at 6w4d to see what was going on and we saw a HB. After that they stopped monitoring me. It ended in a MMC found at 11 weeks that ended at around 7.5. 

This pregnancy I have a different doctor that did one blood draw to confirm pregnancy and didn't have an ultrasound until almost 11 weeks. Even though I was still nervous, I was more comfortable with this process because I feel like all the early testing made me a nervous wreck and didn't change the outcome of anything.  

GL to you. 

Kbomgardner

sweetpea2003 said:

4 days isn't a huge deal, necessarily. Was your expectation based on LMP or charting ovulation?

Yes, hindsight being 20/20, you probably should have waited unless you had some other symptom (bleeding, sharp side pain, shoulder pain, etc) that was concerning.

I had an ultrasound at 5w4d with my son. They saw a gestational sac and yolk sac and I left the u/s place happy. Later my OB calls and said she was concerned that there was no h/b. I had to remind her that it was an extremely early u/s and a heartbeat would have been unusual. She was like "oooh yea, you're only 5 and a half weeks. Sorry!!".

My loss history (3 10-12 week losses, 2 early chemical pregnancies) means that my OBs usually treat me with kid gloves in the first trimester. However, when having ultrasounds between 4 and 7 weeks, you have to really give yourself a break and not jump to any damning conclusions. Early ultrasounds and beta series often just cause anxiety because you go and google and compare yourself to thousands of other women and even if you are perfectly average, not having rock star numbers or seeing  a heartbeat prior to 6 weeks, or seeing a slow heartbeat at 6w, puts people into a tailspin.

I have an u/s tomorrow to just rule out ectopic (my betas are fine, but again, kid gloves) and all we want to see is gestational sac in my uterus. By LMP I am going to be 5w5d, but I'm pretty sure I ovulated on the early side and am probably closer to 6w. I'm still not expecting to see a hb and will be shocked if I do.

Thank you for this. I'm a FTM at 39 and really know very little about the timeline. I was in for my first u/s last week when LMP dated me at 7 weeks 0 days but I measured at 5 weeks 2 days and all we saw was the gestational sac.  I spent the rest of the day worried to death until I spoke to my doctor again and he assured me he believed the EDD was off and I was just too early to see anything. I go again tomorow and am praying for more conclusive results. Your post really put my mind at ease.