early u/s measuring behind, help/advice pls

wildflower79

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Went for an early ultrasound today. Going by lmp dates I should be around 6 and a bit weeks. We saw a heartbeat, which I'm so happy about, but the tech said I was only measuring around 5 weeks. She said the measurement was 2.8mm. I'm now worrying that things aren't looking so good. I could be a few days out, because I don't know exactly when I ovulated, but I did start to get morning sickness really early, like before af was due, so I can't see how I could be that far out. Anybody been in a similar situation?
 
When I went to my early ultrasound with my son, I was supposed to be 6+6 and he measured 5+3. We also saw a little flickering heart beat. By my official dating scan at 9+3 he had pretty much caught up. They're so small at that early stage that it can be very hard to get an accurate measurement of them because if the sonographer if off on the little asterisk placement by just a millimeter or so it can really throw off the dates. As long as you saw a hb, I would assume you're actually further along than 5 weeks (you usually can't see a hb that early) and I wouldn't worry about it.
 
Yea i agree with justplay, you usually wouldn't even see a heartbeat at 5 weeks! I reckon by your next scan baby will have caught up hun, the early scans arent as accurate x
 
You could have ovulated late or the baby could have implanted later than you thought (I sometimes get mild nausea around the time of O and implantation). Also some people have smaller babies than others. It is not a bad thing, it is actually quite common. I've known a lot of girls who went full term and gave birth to 5 or 6 lb. babies. Lastly, as everyone else said, baby might need to hit a growth spurt to catch up. Whatever the case, as long as the doctor thinks it's fine, I wouldn't worry :)
 
Thanks so much for the replies ladies. It's reassuring to hear from others that have been through the same and had good outcomes. After two losses, I'm just finding every little thing is something to worry about.
 
First off, I am SO sorry she scared you like that. Secondly, what she told you is incredibly incorrect. A 2.8 mm fetal pole is NOT 5 weeks. A 2.8mm gestational sac is. You can't even see the baby at 5 weeks, let alone find a heart beat.

The average way it actually works is 4+0-5+0 = sac, 5+3 = sac and yolk. 5+5 = pole with earliest beginning of heartbeat (which are often not yet detectable). In a healthy pregnancy, depending on the type of ultrasound machine, you will begin to see a heartbeat between 5+5 and 6+5.

As far as your exact measurement goes, different countries go by different growth charts and no one agrees on what is actually accurate. My LO was at 3mm at 6+4 and OB said it that meant I was measuring 6+0 by some charts, 6+3 by others.

In the US, most doctors I've met consider 3mm to be about 5+6 to 6+0, but that is only by one of the current charts. At my IVF clinic in Prague, they go by another currently accepted chart that says your date is 6+mm. So 3 mm would be 6+3, 8mm would be 7+1, etc.

What really matters is that the heartbeat accelerates properly and that the baby grows at the correct rate. Once you see a normal heartbeat, your risk of loss decreases significantly.
 
Thanks so much for taking the time to explain all that buny, it really does help me feel reassured. I was quite confused when she said I was only 5 weeks, but we could see the heartbeat.
 
Went for an early ultrasound today. Going by lmp dates I should be around 6 and a bit weeks. We saw a heartbeat, which I'm so happy about, but the tech said I was only measuring around 5 weeks. She said the measurement was 2.8mm. I'm now worrying that things aren't looking so good. I could be a few days out, because I don't know exactly when I ovulated, but I did start to get morning sickness really early, like before af was due, so I can't see how I could be that far out. Anybody been in a similar situation?

when I went for my early ultrasound, I was supposed to be 5 weeks 6 days according to my lmp, but the doctor said I was 5 weeks 2 days according to the ultrasound. The gestational sac measured 8.1 mm then. I'm not an expert in numbers, but the doctor was happy and said everything looked great. He also said no heartbeat could be detected at that stage; he asked me to return in 17 days to have another scan to check for the heartbeat. The next day I had blood work (which according to lmp I was supposed to be at 6 weeks pregnant) and hcg level was 32369. I called the clinic and told the nurse about my numbers and that I should be 6 weeks according to hcg numbers, but she said it was not hcg level that determine gestational age, but the ultrasound. she also reassured me that I was 5 weeks 3 days then, and asked me not to trust lmp calculations.
 
And this is a good reason why in bc canada only a DR reads the ultrasound results and NOT the tech. Many techs are qualified enough to read the results accurately. Some are great, but most just end up scaring the poor mothers to be with the inaccurate info. Yes its nice to have the tech tell you right away, yet its better to have an actual dr tell you the proper results.

Im sure all will be fine...many babies seem behind in the early scan because of how tiny they are. Its sooo hard to get the accurate measurements.
 
I knew I ovulated late. At my early scan by lmp I should have been 7 weeks. By my dates I was 5+3. We still only saw a gestational sac and nothing else So I was worried. At my next scan at 8+1 there was little bean measuring where it should.
 

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