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Oh man, I know that's scary. I'm sorry.

I had cramping in the early weeks of both pregnancies. It's completely normal as the uterus is stretching and growing.

Brown spotting is old blood which could have been from implantation. I wouldn't be too concerned yet -- just monitor it. If it turns red, it's probably worth a call to your Dr. but I will say I have had red bleeding with both pregnancies and both have been just fine!

@Cole: Not to scare you, but I didn't think spotting was normal in pregnancy before 6 weeks.

I would definitely call the dr to get checked out just in case. Better to be safe than sorry!

To echo @coopsmama, I had horrible cramping (a few times it woke me up in the middle of the night) in the beginning (now ~ 12 weeks and just saw the baby dancing around this morning). I tend to think of cramping as "moving in" pains. BUT, if you are at all nervous - call! There have been many women on these boards who have called and gotten to go into their doctor early and have everything checked.

Positive thoughts!

@Cole: Ah, yes, if you're Rh-positive, then you don't have to worry about needing a rhogam shot! Hopefully the cramping goes away soon and you have a very healthy and happy pregnancy!

I spotted a little bit at 5-6 weeks. It can be implantation and is completely normal, but of course I freaked out. I called my after-hours nurse and they put me on pelvic rest until I could come in for an ultrasound. And everything looked great! It's totally normal to spot and cramp a little bit the first 8 weeks or so.

Brown blood is less of a concern than bright red. Volume too. They told me to look for saturating a pad in an hour.

Unfortunately, there isn't much they can do. If a pregnancy doesn't continue at that stage, it's usually because of something development-related.

When in doubt, call the doctor. The peace of mind of getting an early ultrasound and seeing our little fluttery bean at that stage was completely worth it.

Yes, sadly there isn't anything that can be done. Which like you said can help to try to just stay calm as best you can.

@Crystal: Just an FYI, no, spotting is not "normal" but there can be spotting for a lot of reasons and still go on to have healthy pregnancies. Spotting does NOT mean miscarriage. For example, it could be implementation bleeding, a hematoma bleed, old blood, etc.

Based on what my nurse told me, light/moderate cramping is totally fine because the uterus doubles in size fairly quickly. I'm 9w1d and have cramping off and on all the time.

I believe brown spotting is a result of the uterus basically liking to be clean and since you don't get your period when you are KU, its just shedding some old lining. I wouldn't worry (easier said than done!)

@Cole: sadly i don't think theres anything that can be done. they can only monitor and tell you whats happening. but it is very very normal to spot/bleed during a healthy pregnancy so i would try not to worry. especially if you aren't having painful cramps with it

@Crystal: i spotted/bled since week 5 and it was normal for me in both my pregnancies. it was a combination of implantation bleeding and a friable cervix (basically one that bleeds easily because of the extra blood produced during pregnancy). so it was normal in all my pregnancies

@Cole: I had a LOT of cramping for the first 3 or 4 weeks after implantation. I also had spotting early on, and everything has been absolutely fine (12.5 weeks now and baby looks great!).

Spotting can come from implantation, and it can also be coming from your cervix (which is totally fine!). Apparently sometimes the cervix gets highly sensitized by the hormonal changes of pregnancy and starts to bleed very easily (like from intercourse or just sneezing or straining slightly during a bowel movement, or for no reason at all). It was comforting to me to know that once I found that out.

I have insane cramps during my period (like, I have passed out twice in my 35 years just due to cramping pain), and these early pregnancy cramps were not as bad as my terrible period cramps, they were duller, but I wouldn't call them faint. I was told that cramping is a very common early pregnancy symptom and so is spotting. My doctor told me to call her only if my cramping was accompanied by heavy red bleeding (which she told me she would qualify as filling a pad in an hour)--I think in that case they would be worried about a ruptured tube from an ectopic pregnancy, but that typically would happen a bit later like 6-7 or more weeks, not 4-5 weeks.

She also did tell me that if you miscarry that early there is really nothing they can do and it almost always is related to a developmental issue with the embryo that couldn't have been helped (and are apparently more common than we realize--there are a LOT of read/write errors that can happen to the DNA during cell meiosis and rapid divisions that take place in a blastocyst/zygote/embryo's early days and it doesn't mean anything is wrong with you or DH, it is just the nature of entropy in the natural world). Knowing that there's nothing that can be done also helped me relax a bit, too.

With respect to getting your first ultrasound, I think you're very wise to wait until 5 weeks (to the day) or preferably more (like 6 weeks) for an u/s. Before that they will have a hard time seeing anything at all even with a hospital-grade u/s and that might just needlessly freak you out. I had to get an u/s at 5 weeks 0 days because we needed to rule out ectopic pregnancy and I was flying the very next day for a 2+ week trek in remote Patagonia where I could possibly die during that time period if it turned out the pregnancy wasn't inside the uterus (as there was NO advanced medical care available down there). The u/s tech was able to find a gestational sac and confirm it was in the uterus at 5w0d, but she couldn't find a yolk sac or anything and that had me concerned. Waiting even a few days at that stage helps you see more on u/s but I didn't have that choice as I was flying to Argentina the next morning. When I had a follow-up u/s 3 weeks later upon returning to the US we saw the little embryo and a yolk sac and were able to see the embryo's heartbeat and it was a real relief. And everything has been going GREAT ever since--last week at 11.5 weeks the baby looked like a human and was dancing around!

Sending you lots of sticky baby dust and huge congratulations!!

Just seeing if you have an update, I'm experiencing brown spotting and light cramping and just got a super light BFP yesterday.

I have no idea when I ovulated. But on CD18, I experienced spotting for 2 days. I waited a few days, and took FRER, got a faint positive. I called my gyno and she said that was normal. As time passed I continued to POAS, the lines got darker and darker. Today (which I am 4 weeks pg), I took FRER with FMU, and the test line was MUCH darker than the control line. I did some research and apparently that's very normal. I have my first appt on 3/20 when I would be 6w2d.

Do you have an update?