7 Weeks and a Heartbeat

I will be 7 weeks tomorrow. I'm physically feeling pretty good. My fatigue has increased and I find that I get dizzy when I stand up too quickly, but thankfully, nausea has been at a minimum so far. We had our second (more on that in a minute) ultrasound today and got to see the little flicker that is the embryo's heartbeat! It was strong at 146 bpm. I was amazed that we were actually able to HEAR the heartbeat too. It was so surreal. They said that everything is measuring well ... s/he is measuring a couple days ahead at 7w1d. I'm hoping this is not an indication of a large baby to come!

I did not post last week because we had a bit of a scare and I could not bring myself to write about it until I had additional reassurance from this week's ultrasound. On Tuesday, I woke up to red bleeding. Looking back, I don't know if I would call it "heavy", but it certainly was not just spotting. I called the doctor's office as soon as they opened and they were able to get me in for an ultrasound that morning. We were so scared. I was preparing for the worst while holding on to hope. I researched online all morning and it seemed like bleeding is more common in early pregnancy than I thought. I was not cramping at all and from what I read, this was a good sign. The ultrasound showed a gestational sac, yolk sac, and the embryo, but they couldn't see a heartbeat because it was a little early at only 6 weeks. They also saw the area of bleeding. I asked what was causing it and the nurse guessed that it was potentially some tissue breaking off from implantation. So we left reassured that our embryo was hanging on, but I was a nervous wreck all this week. The bleeding went from red to pink to brown and became much more like spotting over the course of a few days. Still, I panicked every time I had to go to the bathroom. What if it came back? Today, they were able to see the bleed again and they said it was much smaller and looked to be resolving itself. Thank God! 

I'm still nervous, but feeling more hopeful after today. I read that the risk of miscarriage is much lower once a heartbeat is detected. The next milestone will be the end of the first trimester which won't be until early November. I'm sure it will be here before I know it even though it sounds so far away now. Luckily, we don't have to wait that long before our next ultrasound: we go back in two weeks. I'm all for seeing the embryo as much as they will let me!

To end on a good note, here are some pictures from our ultrasounds. 

6 Weeks: The little bright line at the bottom of the yolk sac is the embryo

7 Weeks: The ring is the yolk sac and embryo is the little glow worm looking thing to the left :)