Early Pregnancy and Spotting and Sonogram

The earliest you get a heartbeat is 6 weeks. Hang in there I spotted for 5 weeks with my son. As long as the blood isn't red it is not active bleeding.

Please do not worry -- there is no heartbeat to hear yet. The heart is in a development stage during week 5 (I think the heart tube is still forming) and the heart does not start to beat in a regular rhythm until week 6. But even then, the heartbeat still may be difficult to detect.

Spotting happens sometimes in early pregnancy. In my first pregnancy, I had spotting at 8 weeks, leaking of ambiotic fluid at 12, and all was OK. I did go to the OBGYN and then had an ultrasound immediately.

When an ultrasound is done earlier it's hard to tell, though. In my second pregnancy, I thought I was only having one baby when the first ultrasound was done at 5 weeks (no spotting, just routine for IVF follow up). At 7 weeks, a second baby "suddenly" appeared on the second sonogram (there was only a shadow in the first ultrasound). Quite shocking to the doctor (and me!)

Then at 12 weeks, an NT was done and it showed an abnormal kidney in one of the babies, and I was told it was "not unusual, it was too early"; another ultrasound four weeks (and a lot of stress later) with a detailed anatomical scan showed all was normal, and the earlier results were due to shadows or the angle of the image.

With constant ultrasounds (because of the twin pregnancy) I'm getting a little more used to this "it's too early to tell" so if your doctor does not seem overly concerned try to not worry too much. Try to hang in there until the next test :)

I didn't have a heartbeat until 8 weeks with any of my 3 pregnancies. I also spotted with 2 of my pregnancies. It is perfectly OK. Even statistically speaking, 5 weeks 2 days is very early to expect a sac/heartbeat. I hope everything is OK and wish you luck!

At 5 weeks into my last pregnancy (problem was that I wasn't sure of the age of the pregnancy at the time and there was a possiblity it was 9 weeks), the sonogram showed two sacs - one empty and one with fetal material and no heartbeat. I figured I had conceived twins and lost one - "vanishing twin" - because I had had some bleeding. I spent an anxious week hoping my other baby was okay. By what ended up being the end of week 6, I had another sonogram. This time it showed two heartbeats!

Here is what I think-it is great to know you are pregnant as early as possible (so you can refrain from alcohol and being maternal vitamins...) but there is absolutely no point in having a sonogram before 6 weeks.

I wish you all the best with this pregnancy.

That is completely normal. When I was first pregnant with my daughter who will now be 5 at the end of the month, I had a sonogram because my insurance hadn't started from my job yet and my husband had opted out of his so I wanted to verify that I was, in fact pregnant. My father is Lead Rad Tech at the hospital so he had one of his friends do a sonogram on me. I was about 5 weeks when it happened and there was no heartbeat yet. My friend who just recently found out she was pregnant went to her parents pregnancy clinic at 5 weeks and had one and there was no heartbeat. It is impossible to find a heartbeat this early as it really is still an embyro. Once the baby is a fetus you will hear a heartbeat which is usually around 7 weeks and that's still early. This is why they have you come in at 8 weeks for your first visit. So please don't worry yourself, it's COMPLETELY normal.

The heart doesn't start beating until 6 weeks. Every OB I've been to (3 so far with this pregnancy) has told me that. So no worries!!

I did not see my daughters heartbeat til after 7 weeks. She's a beautiful 2 year old now.

You would not see a hb before 6 weeks. So don't worry. I did have spotting with my 2nd child, 4th pregnancy and all went well. I was worried since I had 2 m/c's before but didn't have any problems. I didn't have spotting with my 2 m/c's. Also I didn't have any spotting wityh my 1st child. So each pregnancy is different.