baby heart rate changes

[organicbanana]

for some reason, i'm more nervous the 4th time around than i was the 1st... :eyesroll
i don't know if it's because up to now i feel 'lucky' that we've had 3 healthy children, or what...
anyhow, at my monthly checkup this morning, the baby's heart rate on the doppler was around 120 - last month it was up around 150. am i being totally irrationally concerned about this?! i mean, 120 isn't low per se, i know, but the change is what concerns me. i'm at about 25 weeks and the heart rate has consistently been between 140-150 until now.
could my lower blood pressure be the cause? am i a paranoid wack job??

[crazy_eights]

Normal fetal heartrate varies from 120-160. What your care giver is messuring is the heartrate over one minute. If you were on a fetal monitor, which calculates a beat to beat rate, you could determine what a baseline FHR is over time and notice accelerations, etc. If you took any one minute out of that strip, the rate could vary widely. :hug You and your baby are fine. Don't sweat it!

[mightymoo]

I agree - when my DD was super late we did many non-stress tests, which involved just sitting on the EFM. I was just amazed at how much her heartrate varied over the course of 20 minutes! It made me realize how ridiculous those silly tales of how 'if your babies heartrate is over 140 its a boy' or whatever were!