I've just accumulated some very encouraging information from various websites and am hoping and praying:
The fetal pole grows at a rate of about 1 mm a day, starting at the 6th week of gestational age. Thus, a simple way to "date" an early pregnancy is to add the length of the fetus (in mm) to 6 weeks. Using this method, a fetal pole measuring 5 mm would have a gestational age of 6 weeks and 5 days...
According to that my baby measured 6w2d at 6w4d so only 2 days behind. According to the info my doctor is going on I should have been 7 weeks at that ultrasound but I didn't ovulate on cd 14, I never do.
The normal fetal heart rate usually varies somewhere between 120 and 160 beats per minute (bpm) throughout pregnancy, but in the early part of the first trimester, the baby's heart rate can be slower. A 1996 study established the following as the minimum normal heart rates in early pregnancy ultrasounds, with the size varying by the size of the fetal pole:
* 2 mm embryo: 75 beats per minute
* 5 mm embryo: 100 beats per minute
* 10 mm embryo: 120 beats per minute
* 15 mm embryo: 130 beats per minute
And according to that the heartrate wasn't low at all. And my breasts hurt quite a bit today and I was sick last night, not throwing up, but it kept creeping up my throat until I got that nasty taste in my mouth iykwim.
So now the only issue seems to be the fact that bean was ill defined, which I think means he was hiding a bit (come on he's only 2mm!) and the sac hadn't grown a lot according to the avg diameter rule, but if the went by the largest diameter which some do, then it was perfect. Compared to the first ultrasound the sac was about twice as big with clearer edges and had changed shape quite a bit.
Missy, yay for the symptom of congestion.