Using a doppler at home.

[Dana_Scully]

I'm 13 weeks and 3 days. The sounds I hear on my doppler are confusing me. Sometimes I can hear the baby's heartbeat, mostly before I get out of bed in the morning. A lot of times it feels like I can hear the baby move. It sounds like bubbles going up the surface, or swishing sounds. Is it really the baby moving? Why is it so hard to pick up the heartbeat?

 

[saraaa]

Baby moving sort of sounds like a blip on the doppler, like if you were to move it across your skin quickly.
I can hear bubbles some times but I usually feel it at the same time which is usually gas or something.
Is your placenta anterior? My baby would usually hide right behind mine so you sort of had the angle around to get it

 

[SonnyH]

Baby is really tiny at 13 weeks. There is a reason fully trained health professionals don't listen to the HB on a Doppler before 16 weeks very often! Or if they do, tell you it's very hard to find! When I had awful stomach pain at 17 weeks, I went to my maternity assessment unit and even then they refused to listen to the HB as they said it would just worry me if they couldn't find it!

9/10 on my home Doppler I could hear the placenta and not actually baby. Occasionally I could pick up baby which is a much more clicky sound, like galloping almost. Whooshing sounds are probably the blood flow. As pp, movement sounds like when you move the Doppler over your skin and it makes that weird blipping noise!

 

[baileybubs]

As pp's have mentioned baby is still really small and could be hiding behind the placenta. I am 13 w 2 days and also struggle most days to find the HB. Sometimes I can hear it faintly then I hear baby move and I've lost it again. The movements are like little bubbles or swishes and I tend to hear those more than HB, but then I am no expert so I could be wrong on what all the noises are!

Also different times of the day are better for finding HB, I find in a morning harder especially if I've already been to the toilet and my bladder is empty.

 

[xdxxtx]

Bubbles and swirling is probably gas. lol. Baby's movement sounds like something tapping (if kicking the doppler) or rubbing along it (those swishing sounds). It's easier to catch sounds of baby moving at that size than their heart tones. At 13 weeks, your baby is about 3" long... and their heart is really, really tiny. It's normal to struggle to find it at this point. Some babies are good hiders throughout the whole pregnancy, too, though. My oldest managed to hide all the way through my pregnancy (I had to have ultrasounds to check on him because they could never once get his heart tones on doppler), and I also had to get a wire attached into the top of his head to record his heart rate while in labor because they could not get him on the monitor. I didn't have problems with my other kids, but my first-born was a GOOD hider.

 

[Dana_Scully]

Thanks for the answers everybody. Yesterday night I'm pretty sure he was doing his nut in there lol I ate a muffin and it made him hyper. 😂

 

[lilmisscaviar]

The swooshing sound is your placenta. Once you find the placenta the baby is usually close by at 13 weeks