A Florida woman didn’t expect to give birth to one of the largest babies born in the state.
But that didn’t stop little Avery Ford from coming into the world at a whopping 14.1 pounds.
“When I felt his head come out, I knew he was bigger than 10 pounds,” Maxxzandra Ford told CNN affiliate WFTS. “I was cussing up a storm.”
Avery has set the record for the heaviest baby ever born at St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital in Tampa. In fact, he is one of the largest ever born in Florida.
Before the little tyke made his entrance, Ford was in labor for 18 hours.
Although she knew her baby was big, she was shocked to learn that he weighed just over 14 pounds. “‘What!?” she exclaimed at a news conference. “My baby weighed what?!’ They were like, ‘Your baby is like adorably huge.'”
Avery’s weight wasn’t the first shock the little boy dealt to his mother.
Ford, who already has two children, said she didn’t know she was pregnant until the third trimester. “I had no nausea, no vomiting,” she said. “I didn’t gain any weight.”
Since his birth on January 29, Avery has been in the neonatal intensive care unit.
“They can have some difficulties getting out of the birth canal and there can be some residual effects from that,” said Dr. Jenelle Ferry, a neonatologist who is caring for him. “They can initially have some problems with breathing, regulating their blood sugars and then problems with eating.”
But Avery is doing well, and is expected to go home soon.
His father is already making plans for his future. “I’ve got a linebacker instead of a fullback,” he told reporters.
The average baby born in the U.S. weighs about 7.5 pounds, although anything between 5.5 and 10 pounds is considered “normal,” experts say.
Only about 5% of newborns will fall outside that range.
And Avery is in a rare group. Only 1 in every 100,000 babies born weighs over 14 pounds at birth, experts say.
That said, he’s not the heaviest baby ever born — not even close.
That honor goes to an Italian baby born in 1955. He weighed 22 pounds and 8 ounces.