A woman has just given birth to perhaps one of the heaviest babies in the United States.
Maxxandra Ford of Tampa, Florida, delivered a very large baby-14.1 pounds, to be exact-in St. Joseph's Women's Hospital after over 15 hours of labor. The baby has marked a significant milestone for the health care facility since he's the first heavyweight ever born for the last 30 years.
Avery, who was born on January 29, has already lost a good amount of weight due to fluid loss, but he still needs to eat a lot, more than two times the recommended allowance for normal newborns. He consumes 4 ounces of infant food around 8 times a day.
What makes the story even more interesting is the fact that the 26-year-old Maxxandra wasn't aware that she was having a baby until she was already beyond 30 weeks. She just noticed that the scrubs she was wearing didn't fit her anymore. She's currently working in the same hospital as a support technician for patients.
She's been married to Allen, and both already have two babies, Jackxine, 6, and Aleckxander, 1. Both had normal weight when they were born.
At first, she thought that her baby was only about 10 pounds, but around 20 minutes of vaginal delivery, she and the rest of the hospital staff realized he weighed far beyond that. She was cursing a lot during her delivery, but then continued. Nevertheless, such type of delivery should never be considered for babies who are very large.
The baby, who is still staying in the neo-natal intensive care unit, is under observation. He experienced some breathing problems early on, which is somehow common among big babies. Despite being large, however, he had a normal height of around 22 inches.
According to Maxxandra, she thought she was having twins because of the largeness of her tummy.