Small Bleeding & Early Fetal Growth: What Does It Mean?

Question
Hi

I have two questions today.

I had an U/S today and the baby and sac looked fine, but the technician asked me if I had experienced any bleeding.  

I told her i had not and asked why, she told me that there waa a small bleed (sac of blood) but as it wasnt very close to the gestational sac that it shouldn't be a problem.  My question is should I expect to bleed in the near future and is this sort of thing harmful to my baby?

The second question, is it usual to measure ahead in dates?  Going off LMP 19 Jan 06(I am very sure of this), i would have been 6wks 6 days but the baby measured 7 wks 5 days.  This seems to me to be a large difference and as i have had a previous misscariage (partial molar pregnancy), I seem to be worrying about everything.

thank you

Answer
At this stage of pregnancy, a sonogram is not very accurate ini determining your gestational age. However, as I mentioned to you before, the difference between your dates of 6 weeks 6 days and the sonogram dates of 7 weeks 5 days is only 6 days. This is an acceptable difference and is not considered a discrepency. It is less than a week different, which is within normal limits. I would repeat the sonogram at 20 weeks gestation to get a more accurate gestational age. It is difficult to say whether the small bleed will cause any problems with the pregnancy. As long as you are not having vaginal bleeding and cramps, and the baby appears to be growing adequately and there is a good fetal heartbeat, you should be fine. I don't know what this small bleed (sac of blood) is, but if it is not near the gestational sac, you need to merely watch it with serial sonography. There is no way to tell if it will be harmful to the baby or not.