Twins?

I'm 38y/o and twelve weeks pregnant and went to the dr the other day. The nurse used the doppler to detect the fetal heart beat.  In one place it was 132.  another place just a second later it was 160, is it normal to have a 28 pt variable, or is it twins.  The dr just said my uterus was about the size expect for 12 wks, and scheduled an ultrasound next month.   What do u think??

[AnnieBrooke]

It seems like the variable would be too much for twins (presumably both would be resting or both would be active), and almost too little to be your heartrate and the baby's heartrate.  (Pregnant women's heartrates do rise every week for a while in pregnancy; did the nurse seem to think at all that the lower rate was your heart?)  It is also true that the number on dopplers will swing wildly all over the place for a bit and then settle down, maybe that is what was happening.  I guess in your shoes I would buy a handheld fetal doppler (the Hi Bebe only costs about $125) and listen to my own heart and the baby's until I knew what I was hearing.  (But that's just me.  I couldn't have made it through my last pregnancy without a doppler.)  Why don't you call ask them, they might be able to tell you it's just the way the doppler works.  Or set an appointment just for another listen?  Obviously they would understand if you wanted to know if you had twins.