Possible Miscarriage - Somerset,WI

I have had a miscarriage. I know that a little spotting is normal, as long as it is brownish in color. But if it is bright red and is a lot of blood, it is probably a miscarriage. Plus you'd have severe stomach cramping. At least I did, but I was about 10 weeks along or so. I was gushing blood too. So maybe you are fine. I don't know anything about HCG levels, however. Good luck to you!

I had a similar experience. I had to do hcg testing and then an internal ultrasound to find out that I had a blood clot right behind where the baby implanted. Once the clot had finished bleeding out it was all over and my son is 8 years old now. Try not to worry before you find out more.

No direct experience, a good friend of mine ended up having multiples with those same type of readings.

I hope all goes well for you.

im not sure myself. and i had a miscarriage, though i decided to go for a d&c instead of wait (it was around Christmas time. i didnt want Christmas to be a mess because i started to shed or something...)

i have heard that there is sometimes implantation spotting. but its usually nothing big, but i havent had this myself.

what you can do is just pray, and try to relax. too much stress can make things harder... i know its a terrible time for you, but just have peace that God has it under control.

one thing that helped me (after my miscarriage) and was something i still would have liked to have heard when i had it was that the simple fact that you have a miscarriage means that your body is pretty much ready to be pregnant... that you are able to get pregnant, and your body is gearing up for it. kinda like a preparation. im very sorry if this turns out to be the miscarriage, but thrilled for you if its not! :D just remember that sometimes, God has other plans. and i have a small inkling of belief that every pregnancy, no matter how long its alive, is a child, and i believe that we will meet them in heaven someday.

however, it certainly feels much better to us if we meet them now, when we were supposed to have. miscarriage is a frustrating, hurtful experience.

however, i thought that hcg was the thing you get when you are pregnant, my levels dropped when they started thinking miscarriage. soooo.... with the lightness of your spotting and the levels going up.... i would probably be more likely to think that its a viable pregnancy. :D congrats!

just... walk on eggshells i guess. tread that fine line between calm and sensible worry. drink lots of water, take a vitamin, eat very healthy foods - fruits and veggies, whole grains, legumes. LOL. walk, breathe, relax. good luck and God be with you.

Hi A.

my name is B.. I work as a Medical Technologist, which means I do everything from draw blood samples to running lab tests of all kinds. I have not experienced a possible miscarriage... but can tell you that at this point, a home pregnancy test isn't going to tell you what you need to know.... a serum HCG test will measure if that hormone is rising or falling. If the HCG is increasing, by relatively big numbers, the fetus is still viable. If the HCG is dropping off... the fetus isn't growing and producing the HCG like it should... which could mean a miscarriage. Good Luck with everything... I hope it turns out well for you!

B.

The spotting could be implantation..the rising HCG levels are a good sign...they need to go up. I am not sure a home pregnancy would give you any indication of rising HCG levels, just the presense of it. Why cant they send you for a vaginal ultrasound?? I had this around 7 weeks just to check on some things and you can already detect a heartbeat...Why would they make you wait another week? Cant you go back tomorrow for a blood test to see if HCG are still rising??

That is a painful wait...hope all goes well for you.

Hi A.,

I'm sorry you have to go through this; I know it's stressful. A couple things I learned: one, first and foremost, the people who are dealing with you might be very sympathetic...and they might not. So when someone at the lab tells you this might indicate a miscarriage...yes, it might. But, they say that more to prepare you and because it's so much a matter of course, not necessarily because it IS happening. So take that with a grain of salt. If your HCG levels are still increasing, that's good.

However, if you take a pregnancy test at home and it comes back positive, that means nothing other than that your body still thinks it's pregnant and the HCG levels still haven't evened out. (Sorry; I doubt this is what you wanted to hear.) I seem to remember my doctor telling me I'd still "feel" pregnant for a few days after I miscarried.

Last--spotting is very normal. It can indicate miscarriage, but it can also turn out just fine.

I hope things turn out for you in the best possible way.

Not all bleeding means miscarriages, but often it does. I had two early miscarriages that were confirmed by ultrasounds. You didn't say how many weeks along you think you are, but ultrasounds, combined with the other test results, can normally give you the information you need to know. Just take care of yourself and your body will do what it needs to do.

The waiting is the worst part. It could be that everything is just fine and your hormone levels are just low because it is so early. I had a positive test with my 1st daughter when I was only 2 weeks along. Unfortunatley, though, I did have some spotting early in my 2nd pregnancy that turned out to be a tubal pregnancy. You may want to ask about having an ultrasound done just to rule that out and be on the safe side. I also had a little spotting with my 3rd pregancy which went away and I now have a beautiful 1 year old. I would certainly encourage you to cover all your bases, but also try to relax (easier said than done, right?)because everything could be just fine. Best of luck, I'll be thinking of you.

A.,
I am a first time mother of an almost six month old boy. During my pregnancy I spotted on and off several times and obviously freaked out due to it being my first. I called the nurse and they said everything would be fine and then the next time it happend and they checked me out and everything turned out to be okay. I also had problems figuring out how far along I was due to having my period and they never were quite certain but i was only approximately 2 weeks along when I found out I was pregnant and everything went just fine. Good luck and I hope everything goes well. I'm sure everything will be fine.

In a nutshell here's my hcg story. I was 2 weeks late for my period and had taken 2 home test that were negative. I called the doctor and went in to a blood serum test - the doctors urine test was negative too. My HCG was 19 and I was told that I was barely pregnant, maybe one week since conception. I knew that was wrong as I charted my cycles and knew when I had ovulated and I knew that my husband had been out of town during that time that I supposedly concieved. So they had me go in for another hcg 2 days later expecting it to double. That level came back at 13 and I was devastated as the doctor told me that I was having a miscarriage. I remember that was on a Friday afternoon when my doctor called me to give me that sad news. We were leaving out of town that following Monday afternoon so he had me come back in on Monday morning. I cried all weekend at my loss. Then on Monday I went in for another blood serum hcg. I told the doc at that time that I still felt pregnant - always listen to the mom!!! My doctor called me that afternoon to tell me that my hcg was 351. I could almost see him smiling through the phone as he gave me that news! That wonderful hcg level is now 10 years old. He was my biggest baby too. Also, one week later I had an ultrasound that showed I was 7 weeks along, when I first indicated how far along I should have been. My doctor really learned to listen to me after that.

So, I don't want to give you false hope, however, the doctors are not always right. The fact that you stopped spotting is hopeful in my eyes. I've spotted during my pregnancies too.

I will keep you in my prayers and please let me know the outcome. Have you ever heard the saying "hurry up and wait"? It's not fun!

"Technically" your HCG level is supposed to double every 48 hours. My numbers never did and I have 2 beautiful girls. I would ask if you could come in sooner or ask for an ultrasound. I do have to say that you are so early, and ultrasound may not show much. I had one at 5 weeks and was told that I had miscarried again, however, my miscarriage is now 7!!

I have had 2 pregnancies where they thought I was having a miscarriage. I am glad to say that one is now 2 and the other is 18 months old. With my last pregnancy I had a lot of bleeding. When I went in for my check up he told me I was having an inevitable miscarriage. After a couple days the bleeding stopped so he checked my hcg levels, but they weren't going up like they should. So then I had an ultrasound done. Turns out I was far enough along that the levels didn't go up like they do earlier in pregnancy. When they did the ultrasound, they found the cause of the bleeding, I had a subchorionic tear. I had bleeding for about the first 4 months of my pregnancy, then it just stopped. If I were you I would ask if you could have an ultrasound done. Maybe you are farther along then you think. It wouldn't hurt to try. If the blood isn't bright red and you aren't having any cramping, I wouldn't try to worry to much. I know that's easier said than done, but the stress won't help. Good luck to you.

A.,

Waiting is the worst part. I am so sorry. There is what is called "implantation bleeding" which is a little spotting when the fertilized egg implants and this is totally normal. But it is hard to know for sure. It truly is a wait and see.

I am sure your doctor told you this, but if you start bleeding - really bleeding - or cramping, get yourself into a doctor or urgent care or hospital.

You could take another pregancy test, but it won't tell you anything. It could easily give you false hope or false worry - I wouldn't do it. I think you are better off to rest and distract yourself as best you can.

3 of my 4 kids started womb life as a twin but were all delivered alone and I also had one blighted ovum. (That means the fertilized egg starts the whole process, but never turns into a baby, just gets reabsorbed. So you have a placenta, a positive pregnancy test, low HCG levels, and a distended tummy, but no baby.) It sounds weird, but really common actually.

I hope this turns for the best. There is always hope - so keep your chin up. If it doesn't turn out, feel free to email me and i would be happy to pass on some experience that you don't yet need to worry about.

Good luck,
S.

Hi, A.. My sister just went through this. She has been seeing her OB to help them get pregnant as she had Leukemia, and needed the hormones to help her start getting her periods again. They were also doing insemination. A couple months ago, she had some cysts on her ovaries so they decided to take a couple cycles off to let the cysts have time to go away. During the first month off she found out she was pregnant. At 7 weeks, she started spotting. Not a lot, and not very dark. She went in for several hcg levels and ultrasounds to find that the levels were still going up, but not doubling like they should, and the ultrasound tech could not find an egg sac. I went in with her at 8 1/2 weeks to get an injection to abort the allready misscarried baby. They had to give her an injection to stop the cell growth. Her OB said that she most likely misscarried right away, but her body was still reacting like she was pregnant. I would not read into anything though right now. Wait for the results and talk with your doctor as everyone is different, and every pregnancy is different. Those numbers though are really low. My sisters numbers at 5 weeks were about 450 then at 8 weeks were around 800??? I can't remember exactly, but they were not as high as they should have been.
I totally understand though about telling people all ready. My husband and I got pregnant in July of '03 with our Twins. I was so excited to know we were carrying two that I told everybody! Especially, because it explained how much I had popped out right away. I was huge from the get go. At our tweleve week ultrasound, Thomas was doing great, but they could not see a heartbeat on our other baby. I was crushed. I cried on and off for weeks, and had a hard time talking about it. So many people knew we were having twins that I could not even explain to them all about the loss of one of them. It was too hard. I had another baby 15 months after Thomas, and some of my friends I do not see very often and never told about the loss thought for the longest time that our daughter was his twin.
My advice to you is to do whatever is right for you. If you need peace of mind, call and talk to your Dr. If you don't want to tell people that you may have misscarried, you don't have too. Just give yourself and your husband time to adjust and heal a little bit, and try again. A home test shows positive for hcg in your system so I would not waste one now. Save it for when you start to try again.
I am so sorry you are going through this.

Just another story...I started spotting at 4-5 weeks. It was red and fairly consistent--more like bleeding. This was especially true whenever I was moving about. They only did one HcG level on me and did a vaginal u/s. Everything looked normal. There was just a pocket of blood in my uterus. After another week of bleeding (continually getting less) it stopped. The pregnancy was normal. You never can tell!

I was about 5 weeks along when I miscarried my first pregnancy and it was red and I passed clots and it lasted for a week or two. The HCG will remain in your system for some time so your home tests will still produce a positive result even if you are miscarring. You will have to wait to see if you numbers are doubling or reducing in numbers.

I know how stressful seeing blood can be when you are expecting. I had spotting early on in all three of my pregnancies. Each one seemed to be worse than the previous pregnancy, and more stressful. I went through the HCG testing with my last two (the first one wasn't too bad of bleeding) because the spotting was so constant. It was really hard to wait to find out the results from one test to the next. My numbers did not double for my third baby. I also had multiple vaginal ultrasounds for each of those, an important step to observe the condition of the baby. For my third baby, his size was off from expected, so I had to get another three weeks later. That was a really long wait. All three of my pregnancies turned out fine. Please make sure your doctor does the ultrasound if the bleeding does continue. I have a friend who had bleeding and the doctor just said she was likely having a miscarriage. She ended up collapsing at work and being rushed to the ER with a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. She almost died because her doctor skipped the ultrasound. I hope things work out for you. Try to not get too stressed out about it. Try to relax and get your rest. I know it is hard to hear, but there is really nothing you can do to control it. I pray things work out for you. I am sure anyone that you have told will be kind and supportive if things don't go ok. You will need that support.

A.,

I had a miscarriage between my second and third child. I too went to the doctor and they monitored me. I think it is possible to spot and still not miscarry. Your're doing the right thing by keeping yourself informed and by seeing your doctor. I hope for the best for you.

I am sorry this is happening. It is so very hard to wait for those HCG levels. I have had a miscarriage and one stillborn baby. Both were farther along than yours and I found out after they had died. Those HCG levels should continue to double, but I have heard where they don't and women have went on to have a healthy pregnancy. Unfortunately the home pregnancy test will continue to test positive even if you are going to miscarry. My miscarriage happened in the 16th week, but my little boy had died at 14 weeks. It was almost two week after he was born that the pregnancy test showed I was no longer pregnant.

In my case, I had told a lot of people that we were having a baby. Those that asked, I simply said things were not going very well and would they please pray for me and the baby.

Have they checked your progesterone? The pill does awful thing to you hormone levels. If your progesterone is low that would cause spotting and in the end could cause miscarriage.

A.,
Go online and look up an HCG rating/ranking of pregnancy tests. I believe the best tests test for about 55. Though I really don't remember for sure. HCG as it goes up is supposed to double every day and I think it follows the same pattern as it goes down. I'm not sure, I guess. But you could look this up online too.
If your HCG only went from 104 to 77, then it's decreasing and yeah you probably are having a miscarriage. If you want to say something less traumatic to people who ask you can say that it turned out to be a chemical pregancy. I don't know how far along you are, but with such low HCG I'd guess you were about a week, which falls in the definition of a chemical.
I'd also recommend that you look up the tear drop diary, it's a book.
Also, (and you'll probably hear this a lot from people) at least you got pg. That's a start. In 8 years of trying everything and anything I've only had 1 positive pg test.

When I was 7 weeks pregnant, I had spotting. One night it was very sporadic and light pink. I didn't think much of it. The next morning, it was bright red and heavy, like a period.

I was under the care of a Nurse Midwife. She sent me in for an ultrasound, and we saw a heartbeat. My uterus basically had some sort of dead tissue on the outside of it. I forgot the name for it, but it's not a big deal, but that caused the spotting.

My son was born healthy, fat, and sassy on 12/28/07.

Is it too early to have an ultrasound done? I am not a big fan of constant monitoring via ultrasound--in fact, it was the only ultrasound we had done--but it may give you the answers you need. Good luck to you.

Hi A.,
I'm so sorry you are having to go through this. I know how scary the wait can be. In my second pregnancy between weeks 5-6 I had some spotting (mostly brown, but a little pink mixed in). I went in for blood work and my levels actually dropped. I was told I was having a miscarriage. My doctor called to check on me about a week later and I told her that my spotting had totally stopped. She had me come if for an ultrasound. There was a baby in there with a healthy, beating heart! The doctors couldn't explain it, but because when I gave birth there was a second bag of water, I assume I lost the babies twin. In know that my story is a bit different than yours, but I wanted to tell you to not give up hope. Sometimes things happen that just can't be explained. Also, you asked about taking a pregnancy test to see if things are still okay. The pregnancy test will measure the HCG hormone all the way do to 20-25, so it probably wouldn't be a good measure to see if things are okay. Just try to wait patiently until next Monday. Much harder said than done I know! Good luck to you!

If your HCG levels are increasing - that's a good sign - if they were decreasing - that's a sign of a miscarriage - possibly. I had this happen to me - it's called a chemical preganancy (+ on a home pregnancy test) but in actuality nothing was there - just enough of the HCG level to show up creating a + result. I hope this isn't happening to you but if it is, you could just try again - it's a fluke thing. I think you just may need to wait for a little while longer to determine what is exactly going on. If you can't wait, try taking a test and see what happens. Good luck!!

I had cramping but no bleeding and because I lived 50 miles from the hospital my doctor did a vaginal ultrasound that showed no gestational sac. I knew I was going to miscarry before it happened and even though the miscarriage was tough the knowing helped. See if your doctor will allow a vaginal ultrasound so you don't have to wait through weekend.

Prayers for you....C.

I had spotting on and off (almost every week) through my whole first trimester. My Dr. never said anything to me about HCG levels and pretty much monitored the actual baby. I had my first ultrasound at 6 weeks due to the spotting and we were able to hear the baby's heart beat by 10 weeks.

I can say it was always nerve raking and I was in the Dr. office every week getting checked out -- but in the end I delivered a beautiful and healthy little boy.

The spotting did stop as I went into my second trimester -- the Dr had said that if it didn't it could be a problem.

Not sure if this helps -- good luck.

First of all, you shouldn't have to wait. I had bright red bleeding at 9 weeks and went in and they actually found the heartbeat (hard to do at 9 weeks) and set me for an ultrasound the next day (our hospital is little and don't have techs 24 hours)So, I would say to go into the ER if you have to to see if they can hear a heartbeat and/or do an ultrasound. I know it's hard, but RELAX. That's best for baby and you!

I dont think the home pregnancy test will tell you anything you don't already know. The waiting game is awful, but it doesnt sound too great for this pregnancy. The best thing is that it is very early in the pregnancy and that should make recovery much easier and make it easier to try again.

If the bad news does come the people you told you were pregnant will offer you lots of support.

Good luck

A.,
While I didn't have any spotting like you, I did have HCG levels that were not doubling. I had a falopian tube pregnancy and it had to be terminated.
I wish you the best of luck and am hoping for nothing but the best!

A home test checks for HCG, so even if you had a little in your blood you would show positive whether you miscarried or not.

Unfortunately I've lost 2 in the first trimester and it is not an easy process. I'm thinking that the reason that the Dr. said it's a possible miscarriage even though your levels went up is that they didn't go up enough. Everybody is different though and doesn't produce HCG at the same rate. I don't know how many weeks your are, but at 6 weeks of my current pregancy I had an HCG of 1200 the normal range for that week is like ###-###-####. So you can see there is a huge difference.

I am suprised they didn't offer you a vaginal ultrasound. There is a slight chance of miscarriage and maybe he didn't want to chance it. One thing to remember too is that if it is a miscarriage you have to pay for the whole thing. If it's not then insurance will pay for it. That was a shocker..here you are grieving over the lose of a baby and you get the nice bill at the end. Of course that all depends on your insurance, but just be aware.

In the meantime try and keep your feet up and do as little as possible. If it is a miscarriage here's a word of advice. It's like going through labor and can be very painful. Your body will have contractions to expel the baby, so be prepared. Try and get pain killers for the pain. Go for the big stuff. I didn't have anything for my first one and it was the worst experience of my life. The second one I got percaset (sorry about the spelling) and it was a lot easier.

It's a lot more common then we realize, it doesn't help to know that but do know that there are lots of woman that have gone through it and it helps to talk about it. It's okay that people know that way they can help you though the tough times. The best thing to do is to either tell one person (or have your husband do it) and have them tell the others. That way you don't have to keep doing it. Also remember that your husband lost a baby too. He may not have felt the same physical connection, but he had the same hopes and will grieve a bit as well.

Another tidbit to remember is that after a miscarriage your body is the most furtile it's going to be. After each of my miscarriages I go pregnant 2-3 months afterwards.

Anyway, hope everything turns out good. We'll be thinking of you and hoping for the best.
C.

I hope things are going better today I know how scarey it can be when your in your situation.

I would like to introduce myself to you by saying I am a person that has had 7 miscarriagesbefore I finally got pregnet with my 2 childred. Not that that is a good thing, however, each time I would have a miscarriage the symptoms were different.

When I got pregnaet with my daughter,at first I started bleeding thinking OMG it is happening again. I did what you did and went to the doctor. By your HCG level going up and not down that is a good sign. Because your HCG will fall when you are loosing the baby.

I finally had 2 children both very health; smart and beautiful.

When you went to the doctor they probably told you to stay home and keep your feet up; no lifting etc. DO IT!!! Pray alot and hope. God always hears and never shuts a door without cracking a window.

We also must remember that if by some unfortuniate reason you do loose the baby; it doesn't mean you won't ever have a health happy baby. I am proof.