Baby measuring 6 weeks - dates don't add up.

[partridge]

So this morning I went for a private scan, as I am the paranoid type and wanted some reassurance. Please bear with the complicated dates to come.

I last had unprotected intercourse on 23rd November. Date of lmp was 1st November and BFP was 9th December.

This morning at the scan she measured a pregnancy of 5 1/2 - 6 weeks gestation (so 3 1/2 - 4 weeks since conception) with what she was 99.9% sure was a heartbeat. She seemed happy to sign it off as a healthy and viable pregnancy. My menstrual cycle is very erratic and always has been, but this seems to be stretching it even for me?!

I have worked out that even if the sperm can survive for seven days, I would effectively have conceived on day 7 of this survival period, meaning I ovulated 4 days before my next period was due...

I took a clearblue predictor test on the 9th which said I was 1-2 weeks pregnant, another the following morning which said that I was 2 - 3, and one on 15th, which said I was 3+ (these measurements mean from conception I believe, not LMP). I know they are not hugely accurate, but they wouldn't tally with the scan either really. I'm not even sure what I am asking really - but does this sound feasible? Could the embryo be slowly dying and am I heading for a miscarriage?

Apologies for garbled message...

ps, by my calculations I should be at least 7 weeks, if not 8 (by LMP - although I don't take much notice of that with my cycle!)

Sorry, meant to say, she couldn't see anything on the internal scan - but saw plenty on the abdominal one - weird, as I am on the portly side!

Hi Partridge,

Ok, forgive me for getting a teensy bit confused by your post as baby brain can't seem to cope with even basic maths right now.

I'm just behind you, LMP 12 Nov, BFP 15th Dec so only a week. By dates I am 6+4 therefore but during a scan I was told this cannot be used accurately.

I had an early scan at 5+4 (again, this is by dates) and the only thing that was visible on screen at this stage was a sac. Doc said this is normal and often a heartbeat is not even visible until 7 weeks+. This put my mind at rest just to know that it was in my womb and not anywhere else (paranoia much!) My scan was an external one.

He also told me that pregnancies between 4 and 7 weeks are far too difficult to date accurately, it's just too early. Also if you have irregular cycles aswell this can make it harder.

Like you I have been worrying about everything possible but I have to try and reassure you to be calm for now.

You are definitely pregnant, exactly how far is unknown right now but the important thing is that you are. The fact that the MW saw a heartbeat is hugely reassuring.

As for the pregnancy tests and the weeks displayed I would try to get this out of your mind. My doctor and all the nurses I have spoken to hate these tests as they are misleading to say the least and end up causing so much worry. HCG levels vary so much that you cannot rely on these tests to date a pregnancy.

However, it is very positive that the weeks moved up on the later tests you did.

So in answer,

Yes, it does sound very feasible. Very feasible indeed.

Congratulations xx

Thank you - that is what I needed to hear. I think I am just concerned that to fit with the scan dates (although reassuring to hear that the crl is not infallible) I would have had to have conceived against all the odds at what would seem such a strange time in my cycle and at the boundaries of what is possible (eg. sperm living for 7 days before it met an egg etc.)

I agree, it was very difficult to decipher my first post!

I know exactly when I fell pg (had been V.ill, and only did the deed once in 3 months!). Went for an early san when I should have been 6+4, saw no HB just a sac. Was told baby was measuring less than 4 weeks and pregnancy wasn't viable.

Went back for another scan when I should have been 8+1, again no HB seen, but there was a fetal pole this time, was told again that pg wasn't viable, and baby was only measuring 6 weeks. Was offered a D&C, but turned it down, just had a 'feeling' that all was actually well.

Went back for another scan when I should (by my dates) have been 12+1....and baby was there, HB, measuring 12+1, looking very healthy, moving around, most definately a baby!

I am now 37+2 with a baby that I was told wasn't growing proerly, and wasn't a viable pregnancy. I'll agree to disagree on that one, if only because the baby is currently kicking the heck out of me!

Sometimes babies do not fit the 'accepted growth pattern' to start with, yet catch up and are perfectly fine.

This is dc4 for me BTW. All tests came back as a perfectly healthy baby, and he looked amazing on the 3d scan I had at 21 weeks.

Oh wow - what a horrifying story. I am so pleased that everything worked out for you - what a happy ending! I have to say, that with my first two, I wasn't even ttc, so was very sketchy on dates. With this one I was charting - so know dates exactly... perhaps this is just always the way it goes for me, I just hadn't noticed! Fingers crossed...

Would love to hear any more stories. Thank you.

Hi Partridge, I don't know much about this, but I only measured about 6 when I should have been 12, and it ended in MC. I believe that kind if difference is the time to worry, but a week or so isn't much cause for concern as these ladies have already said

Partridge, other than being paranoid like me, how else are you feeling?

As we are at very similar stages I'd love to compare a little.

I started feeling particularly dreadful today, very bad nausea all day to be honest. I'm off food and try and force down what I can but I know that soon I will never be able to look at another ginger biscuit again.

I had backache since before my period was due, that's what made me test actually as it is not usual for me. I have also had incredibly sore knees throughout all the cold weather, I felt about 100 years old creaking around in my wellies.

I've been really itchy and restless allover, can never get comfy in bed or on the sofa and keep changing clothes constantly to see if it makes a difference-it doesn't though.

Apart from that I just feel like I could sleep forever and have been doing as much as possible as have the luxury of being off work until Jan 5th-such good timing!

Oh but find it hard to get off to sleep in the first place hence me being here now, grrrr

Hope you're ok,

TD x

Well it sounds like you have lots of irritating symptoms that signify a really healthy pregnancy! In a way I am a bit jealous.

I haven't felt nauseous or particularly tired. I have only really had slightly painful nipples to be honest, and even that seems to be lessening. I hardly had any symptoms with ds1 and just a bit of nausea with ds2 though, so not putting too much store in symptoms. I can't quite believe that this pregnancy will have a good outcome for some reason, but like I say I am notoriously prone to paranoia!

Partridge I also have preggo brain so can't remember the numbers properly, but I had a scan at 6 weeks and it was measuring something like 4 weeks 5 days. Like yours, the sonographer didn't seem concerned. I was completely paranoid for the next two weeks until I had another scan, at which point it was measuring much closer to 'my' dates and we saw a heartbeat. I think dating is just pretty inaccurate at this stage and possibly embryos don't grow at quite the expected standard rate. I am now 11 weeks but still paranoid if I'm honest!

Re the nausea, mine didn't really kick in until about 7 weeks and was the same with DD1.

Good luck! Do you have another scan booked in or do you have to wait until the 12 week scan?

Not quite the same but I had a scan at what would have been 10+4 according to LMP at the time they measured me as 10 weeks exactly which like you would have meant conceiving on 7th day of sperm survival. At that stage the difference of just millimetres makes a difference to exact dates so quite easy to get wrong by just not quite clicking accurately (which given the fuzziness of the pictures really isn't that surprising) so I didn't think it was anything to worry about.

Fast Forward to my 20 week scan I measured 4 days earlier than the date of calculated my LMP (which I most likely got a bit wrong), which coincided very accurately with the timing of actual conception.

Thank you. Cracked and booked another private scan for 11th. Have also had to put back my nhs nuchal translucency scan based on my new due date, so I'm glad I did the first one.

Just so you know my LMP puts me at 2 weeks past my due date when based on the scans I'm due next week. I also have a friend who got pregnant whist having unprotected sex during her period (and that was the only time she had sex in two months so it must have been then).

Our bodies are funny things. Don't worry and try to enjoy your time now!

I really think they put more faith in the scans, and the notion of uniform early development, than they should. I went for a 12 week scan, and they put our dates back two weeks as DS's intestine was still outside his body and 'should' have migrated back inside by 11 weeks.
Roll on six months and he arrived two days after his due date according to the scan, but was huge 9lb 6oz, had lost all his vernix and had peeling skin on his hands and feet, which the midwives said was a classic sign of an overcooked babe, and was much more aware and stronger than a term newborn. In short he was probably a good two weeks overdue.