can you not find twins at 8 week u/s?

A friend of mine just phoned and asked me a interesting question...
Someone she knows just had an 8 week u/s and the tech thinks there is 2 but isn't sure, and is bringing her back in a couple weeks to look again.
I know I'm not a Dr. but I would assume at 8 weeks you either see 2 heart beats or you don't?
I found out at my 18 week appt, so I'm not sure on this 8 week thing~

Thanks for any input, Pam

 

sometimes they see 2 that early, and sometimes they don't.....I don't think that it sounds odd at all.

 

You are right that normally they'll see the sacs by around weeks six or so. Within the next two weeks heartbeats should show up. We didn't know for sure at our 8 week ultrasound--I have a "military" (straight up and down) uterus which makes it more difficult to see. We knew we saw two sacs, but couldn't identify the second heartbeat.

So, there could still be two...
-TL

 

At my 8 week ultrasound there was no mistaken there being 2 babies. I would imagine though that if they are in the same sac there might be some question. Anything is possible.

 

I would say it can go either way. At my 8 week u/s we did determine there were 2 babies!

 

We found out at 6.5 weeks and if I remember correctly we saw the heartbeats at our 8.5 week u/s.

 

One of mine was completely missed at 8 weeks, we were pretty shocked at 10 weeks to see two babies

 

I guess it depends on the positions of the babies... at first they thought I was having triplets because they saw a shadow behind one of the babies... then after fulling around a little bit longer, the shadow went away... and there was just 2

 

It definately happens. It will be an exciting few weeks until she gets to see for sure.

 

I think everyone is different. We saw ours at 5w5d, and we saw both heartbeats which the dr. was kinda shocked about.
Kristen
edd 8/26/07

 

Absolutely.....my first us showed one heartbeat and one sac, but when I went to the peri at 5 mo (because of my age) imagine our surprise when the tech showed us our twins! My ob said that's only the 2nd time in her career that's happened to her.

 

I found out I was pregnant via a blood test at 6 weeks. That same week, I had a pelvic u/s for pain. The u/s specialist saw 2 sacs but told me that I had to wait a little longer to ensure they both developed since it's common for the 2nd sac not to fully develop. The OB confirmed my twin pregnancy at 8 weeks with both heartbeats. It's my understanding that the heartbeats are apparent at 7 - 8 weeks.

 

We found out about our twins at 6 weeks, and the doctor said there were two strong heartbeats at our 7 week visit. Ours are fraternal, so I dont know if this would be the same for identical. As one of the past posts said, the position/angle may have alot to do with it.

 

It also depends on the type of machine...was it vag u/s and was it a good machine. An old one or an abdominal u/s could easily miss it. I think these days with a new machine and vag u/s it would be hard to miss but not unheard of. Mine were very obviously seen at 4w6d..we saw all four. By 8 weeks we could still def see all 4. Could depend on the position of her uterus as well..

 

I was 8 weeks when we found out. I had some bleeding that morning went to see my ob and was told to be hopeful and sent us for an emergency internal ultrasound. Clear as day we could see two beating hearts

 

It's possible. At my 7.5 week u/s, there was only one heartbeat (two sacs though). At my 9.5 week u/s, there were two heartbeats!!!

 

I had 4 ultrasounds between weeks 6 and 8, and they never picked on the fact that there was another baby, much less the "other" baby being a set of id twins.

At my 5th us, 8 weeks 0 days, ad I not asked the technician if the heartbeat under her finger was mine, she never have noticed that what she thought was my fibroid tumor was actually a gestational sac. And even when she fitgured out it was a baby, she didn't think to look for more than one!

So, yep, things can be unclear. Much of it depends on the quality of the ultrasound machine too.

 

At 7 weeks with L & M we were told we were having just one baby (with a vag u/s). We told our families at 9 weeks and everyone joked...are they sure there is only one? Well at 11 weeks we found baby #2!! They looked like they were in the same sac until almost 5 months..so maybe that had something to do with it, I don’t know. But it was quite a surprise anyhow!

 

Like most everyone said, I'm sure it can depend on a lot of things so early on- we did see and hear both babies in their own sacs w/ their own heartbeats right at around 7 weeks via a "good" vag u/s. So it is possible... but it's good that they're double checking!

 

we saw sacs and heartbeats via vag u/s at our first u/s at 6w3d.

 

When I went to the doctors I thought I was 8 weeks. They did an u/s and found out that I was 7 weeks and that there was 2 sacs and both hearts were beating. I have to go back in 3 weeks to check the progress.

 

I had an u/s at 7 and 11 weeks and only found one baby. I found out at my 21 week u/s that it was twins! So....yes! It's possible!!

 

At 6 weeks the OB found fraternal twins and then at 8 weeks they found an identical triplet. I guess it's possible to miss one sometimes. I think that once the dr found 2 she kinda stopped looking. We unfortunaly lost one of our identicals a few days after that but I guess it's possible to miss one.

 

They were able to see 2 sacs a little after 4 weeks at our u/s.

 

We found out we were having twins at 6weeks, saw them both and heard both hbs, ours are b/g - so in 2 sacs, one on left and one on the right. So maybe where they r or if they r in same sac might make a difference?

 

I had a U/S at 7 weeks and we saw both sacs and two little heartbeats.

 

I had an intra-vaginal scan at 5 weeks and the Tech said it was twins!

 

We saw twins and both heartbeats at 7.5 weeks.