Picking up heartbeat early with doppler?

[pucca]

I am roughly 11 weeks, and bought a doppler off ebay, i have been trying to get heartbeat but to no avail, any hints or tips? where about should i be trying to pick it up? how far under belly button?

TIA x

At this stage i found pointing the end bit downwards near my right hip bone worked i think it kind of echoes off the bone saying that until i was about 16 weeks i could only hear it for a matter of seconds so dont panic.

Edodgy...Thanks it is my own fault for buying a doppler so early, but have just been reading some thread saying that someone picked HB up at 9 weeks so started panicking a bit then! lol.

Bump, anyone else any tips? Still not having any luck.

pucca - its too early! you will only stress yourself out. dont use it yet!

Pucca - I had my midwife appt yesterday and she said its quite hard to pick up a heartbeat with a doppler before 16 weeks and that she would not even try as when she cant find a heartbeat it can cause unneccessary stress. I would leave it a couple of weeks and then try.

I was thinking of getting one but my dh said no it would cause us to much worry at this stage (12 weeks)

it depends on how far out of your pelvis your uterus has grown. at 11 weeks for most people it can still be tucked down right behind your pelvic bone, so to get any chance of hearing you will need to be right down there, aiming the doppler probe down into your pelvis, behind the bone, rotate it slowly and if not there move the probe from the centre to the side and then to the other side at this size they are good at hiding, so not unusual to not be able to hear it. it can take a while for a doppler to pick up the heartbeat, a few seconds before it registers iyswim.

i still sometimes have trouble finding it myself and i am 33 weeks pg and a midwife!! it is much ahrder to find it on yourself than other people finding it, also when it is smaller you have the disadvantage of not being able to palpate position making listening in pot luck.

have you tried having a full bladder like when they do an ultrasound and lying down flat? don't know whether it'll help but that's how i'm going to try to find the fhr when i start using my doppler.

Thanks everyone

I have decided NOT to try any more, as i am just stressing myself out lol. When pg with my dd i rented a doppler from around 15 weeks and of course managed to get the HB everytime, i shouldn't have got one this time till later on! Too tempting when lying around in my reach to "try".