Sorry to hear about your experience Tex. Its actually reassuring to me that other people go through similar experiences to me - and usually end up ok. I had a missed miscarriage at 22 weeks, which was pretty awful (found out the baby had died two weeks before when I went for the scan). Then I had two perfectly healthy boys (worrying until I got to around 26 weeks in both pregnancies).
I'm now divorced from their father and remarried and trying to have a baby by my husband. I had a feeling something was wrong with my pregnancy in March, at 10.5 weeks (just a feeling and it was right, so never ignore your instincts) and went for a scan to find out the pregnancy was anembryonic and had to have a d & c. This means the placenta and amniotic sac was there and still growing but their was no foetus inside it - people often don't find out about this until the 12 week scan as everything appears normal.
Last month I was at 8 weeks and got a slight brown discharge. This was odd because I didn't have a feeling about what was going to happen whereas with both other miscarriages I had - a feeling of doom waiting in the scan room which wouldn't shift. This was an awful experience because it took three weeks of a gradual build up of pain and eventually red blood which got heavier - but all through it the doctor and scan operator couldn't be sure I was miscarrying and so couldn't do anything about it just in case I remained pregnant.
I was very upset when the first signs came along and quite depressed and physically tired, but in a way I was calmer this time around. This time it was an 'early foetal demise' which sounds the same as yours. Feotus there but stopped developing because of some unknown problem. The doctors said the anembryonic pregnancy (blighted ovum) happens in 1 in 4 pregnancies and the early feotal demise happens in 1 in 6 and basically there shouldn't be a problem in me having another successful pregnancy eventually as the two are unrelated. Same as you - no tests until I have three consecutive miscarriages. One comment I got was that if a woman gets pregnant often enough, these things will happen - its an occupational hazard.
Mind you, I also got a couple of doctors and nurses who shook their head when they found out I was 40, as if to say well what do you expect? I felt like screaming out - my last successful pregnancy was only five years ago! Its not that long!
I was concerned that there may be a problem between my husband and I and apparently thats what they test for after 3. However, the doctor said that it is highly unlikely since we have both successfully had two children each with our exes.
Guess we just have to keep on trying. I know from my first one that the pain does lessen a lot once you have a successful pregnancy, but its still hard to remember that sometimes.
Docs also told me there should be no connection with the timing between the pregnances. Once you have had a full cycle and a period after the bleeding stopped, its ok to try again. My mother keeps saying I should give my body six months rest but I don't feel that at age 40 and having had two in a row, I have time!