I just got this today and of course used it right away. I heard my heartbeat and knew where the baby was right away as I can feel twinges in the same spot...I am only 8 weeks and 4 days to be exact and I did hear the gushing wind sound of the placenta; however, the monitor reading was jumping like crazy...getting readings from 96 - 146 bpm...it sounded like a faint heartbeat noise behind the placenta...I couldn't tell if it was faster than mine as I was a bit nervous myself and knew mine was beating at about 92 bpm too....is this normal to jump around like this?? No, I didn't have a full bladder either being this early on and again, the doppler did detect rates of 126 - 146 within the same spot without even moving the doppler just didn't know if that was common being early or not.
Its such a wonderful sound to hear your baby's heartbeat! The display is only accurate once you have a clear loud sound coming from the unit. Often, especially in weeks 8-10 the heartbeat is a little harder to find and becuase the uterus is below your pubic bone, baby is small and there is alot of space to move around. After 10-12 weeks hearing the heartbeat becomes alot easier as the baby grows and your uterus moves up into your abdomen. Also, a sleeping baby is much easier to monitor than an active, awake baby.
I always recomend that clients do not look at the display until they have good audio. Once your baby's heartbeat is loud and clear the display should read accurate bpm.
Both the Sonotrax and the Tummy Tickles rental dopplers have an accuracy of about +/-2 Bpm. So once you have good audio, you should also have accurate display within about 2 beats per minute
