Couldn't find heartbeat at 6+5, found at 7+5

Wanted to share my story as I know when I was searching myself on this sub for this situation there were a lot of sad outcomes and some misleading comments that scared me so wanted to provide the other side.

Went in a week ago and I was measuring at 6+1 (which seemed slightly early to me based on my dating) and the NP said she might have seen slight "fetal heart activity" but couldn't say with confidence and nothing was picked up by the monitor. She wanted me to come back in a week.

Naturally, my head started spiraling and thinking this was non viable. I searched the sub and unfortunately found many people saying fetal heart activity can be seen at 5-6 weeks and to be guarded.

Went in for my appointment today and I'm measuring 7+5 (almost exactly how I tracked it) and we saw the heart beat/it was picked up by the monitor and saw a little wiggle!

So if you are seeing this and are panicking about your next ultrasound to confirm viability, know that it IS possible to not get the heart rate picked up at 6-7 weeks and that is completely normal. There is a reason why they want your first appointment to be at 8 weeks, or sometimes longer in other countries. Just because someone says they saw a heart beat at 6+0, does not mean you will too. Position of the fetus, technology used, and skill of the person doing the ultrasound all play a role as well. I also want to mention that early ultrasounds can also have a variance of 5 days in true gestational age. So just like how my initial ultrasound said I was 6+1, but I was actually 6+5. That can play a big part as well when heartbeat detection can literally change in a matter of hours.