Congrats OP!
I just want to add my story for anyone searching as well to di your research just as OP said. I had bleeding at 9 and 15 weeks and went to my local ER. My HCG was 42,000 my first visit and 29000 my second. The pimple faced doctor told me I was losing the baby even though we saw a heartbeat and movement. I had to educate him that once the placenta takes over HCG can drop and hello we just saw a healthy 15 week old baby. My husband was practically in tears because "the doctor said..." I was furious. Had a healthy DD that is now 1.

OP -- Thank you for posting and updating this bread! As "someone with funky betas who may one day look for this thread", you've made my night!

Thanks OP for updating!!!! I was just released from my RE and am trying not to be a nervous wreck! Like you, my betas never doubled in early pregnancy. I had some uneasy early ultrasounds that showed the embryo behind in size, but it's grown normally for the past two weeks. (I'm now nearly 10 weeks.)

Your update gives me more hope!!! Best wishes to your family on the new addition!

Thumbs up!

Congrats and thanks for updating!!

Congrats, op!!! That's awesome!! So glad you came back and updated! (Just watch though, I bet there will be a bunch of posters after me who miss your update. Lol!)

Just in case anyone with funky betas is desperately seeking good news on this forum some day: I now have a healthy baby boy! Pregnancy was actually pretty uneventful from second trimester onwards.

Congrats, OP. Thanks for the update!

OP here. Because when I was frantically searching, I hated how many posters never came back to say what happened... Obviously, I don't know how things are going to turn out for sure yet, but I definitely just had my best day in 7 weeks!

After my last post, I started bleeding bright red at 9 weeks... Brought in for a scan, which showed a sizeable hematoma adjacent to the placenta. Told there was about a 50% chance things would work out (and this doctor didn't even know about the HCG issue). Baby looked fine, measuring on track, HB good.

Scan at 10 weeks showed everything basically fine w/ the baby (some concern over possibly 5 days worth of growth in 7 days, but within the margin of error esp given different machines), no visible sch and hematoma mostly gone. OB started to seem more optimistic: hematoma could explain the HCG results... implantation at 5 weeks was imperfect (spotting as evidence), but seemingly managed to correct itself based on current scan.

Just had my first trimester screening at 12 weeks and everything looked good! (First Trimester Screening was not ideal/not awful for DS, but M21 was clear... so probably everything is fine.) Based on all of the literature I can find, normal U/S at 12 weeks and clear M21 suggest that we are back to basically normal odds that everything will turn out OK notwithstanding the HCG results. So relieved.

Congrats, OP. I hope it continues to go well!

OP!! How wonderful news to hear it!! Fingers crossed for the healthy growth and strong HB in 2 weeks time!!

OP here: Was (happily!) shocked today to find a baby measuring 8w1d (should have been 8w based on the last u/s, so growing appropriately) with a HB of 170. No explanation for the spotting, but the OB was way more "let's be cautiously optimistic" than my GP had been... so I'm trying to get back into that mindset! She could obviously tell that I was totally freaked out, so she suggested bringing me back in for another u/s 2 weeks... which I gratefully accepted. The roller coaster continues.

12:21 here - I'm so sorry to hear you are spotting and cramping. I still have my fingers crossed for you, but know that you're in good company on this board. This time period where you afraid and not sure exactly what is going on is such a tough one.