Hi Ladies,
Not sure anyone will check this thread again, but just wanted to add some of my experience with the Sonoline B, now that I have it. It was NOT easy for me to find the baby's heartbeat and I hope to settle some other's fears who have trouble finding the baby.
The video that one of the ladies posted on this thread was truly helpful. I didn't even read the instruction manual because the girl on the video covers everything. She was 9 weeks in the video and I've read lots of other people being able to locate the baby by 8, 9 weeks with no problem, so I figured I'd be able to find the baby since I was at the beginning of my 10th week. NOPE! Laid there for 30 minutes and found nothing.
I had a doctor's appt. a few days later where she checked the heartbeat and although it took her a while to find it, she finally narrowed in on it MUCH higher up that I thought it'd be....everyone says to search low near the pubic bone, but this baby was just a couple of inches south of my belly button.
I went home and immediately grabbed my doppler and went back to the same spot and found the baby, but it STILL took some doing, even though I knew exactly where to look. You have to be incredibly patient!!! It takes me 20-30 minutes to find the baby most times.
I'm just going to jot down a few things I've learned from using the Sonoline B doppler that will hopefully help others:
--Don't freak out if you can't find the baby!! They are SOOOO sneaky. And they do, in fact, move. I kept trying to look at the same spot the doctor found the baby origianlly, and it had totally moved to a different location a couple days later.
--Pay little mind to the heartbeat counter on the device. It's not always perfect at picking up the accurate heart rate, no matter what setting it's on. Especially if your blood flow is interferring with the baby's heartbeat....the device seems to get confused about what noise to focus on. Even when I found a clear reading of baby, the monitor was still kooky with the heartrate, going all over the place. I don't trust the numbers on the screen. If you hear that fast heartbeat, it's baby....and if it's fast, everything is probably fine and you can count the beats yourself if you are so inclined. I know for me, just hearing that fast beat gives me comfort.
--I've found that in these early days (I'm now in my 11th week), the sound of my blood wooshing is a lot stronger than baby's heartbeat. So, the baby often gets lost in the sound of my blood pumping, especially if baby is over near the arteries where the sound of those arteries is very loud. It really can overpower the baby's noises, which are very soft right now.
--Remember that baby can be turned in a direction or be tucked toward the back of your uterus where finding the heartbeat can be difficult. Wouldn't it be lovely if they were always backed right up to the front of our uterus where we could find them quickly? Well, that doesn't always happen and being so small and in different positions in there, they can be hard to locate.
--I've found the only way I can locate the baby is to use TONS OF GEL because it's responsible for transmitting the sound waves. The more gel, it seems the louder the sounds. And I have to place the probe in a starting spot and press it there for a few seconds, then start tilting that probe in the same spot, but in different angles. I've never found the baby with the probe being pressed flat against my stomach....always found it on one of the angles. And wait a few seconds with each angle of the probe. Then, move just a hairline in another direction and repeat the process. You have to give the machine time to pick up on that small heartbeat. You may not hear it right away.
Honestly, for me, it's a long process and a total miracle when I finally find the heartbeat. It is in NO WAY as easy as the video made it look...for me anyways!! And sometimes, it's very hard to keep the baby's heartbeat on the doppler for long. If I dare to breathe, that's enough movement to lose the heartbeat.
I really hope this can help at least one person who may be freaking out about not being able to find the baby.....I'm sure as time goes on and that baby gets bigger with a louder heartbeat and less movement, it will be easier. But in these early weeks, it really can be a challenge!!
Any suggestions? x
