big babies (9lb +) - did you know in advance?

[lainey1981]

question for you ladies who have given birth to bigger babies (9,10, 11lb) did you know in advance? ie had midwife given any indication that baby was larger than average.

I am just saying this as for most of my pregnancy I have been obsessed with the fact that I am growing a giant baby. I regularly dream that it comes out at over 12lb.

20w scan everything seemed within normal range and the one midwife who commented on baby's size a few weeks ago said it felt 'normal' anyone measured bang on dates and not had giant bump etc go on to deliver unexpected large baby??

btw am 37+2

hey lainey, I am measuring bang on for dates but in my scan yesterday they said baby is expected to be 9lb, mine have gotten bigger each time, ds was 9lb4 and I measured 2 weeks over for dates

My second was 10lb2oz, and I was sent for a scan until 10 days before due date because bump had got a lot bigger. Until then I was measruring normal (I ate a lot of pies that week.)

Bigger baby was a thousand times easier to deliver than a 7lb one, btw...

Don't listen to them if they are saying 'oooh its a big baby'

My first was 9lbs but thats because he was 2 weeks over due.

when i was pregnant with my 2nd the midwives saw DS1 was 9lbs and kept saying this baby was going to be huge, I wanted a homebirth and they were talking about shoulder dystocia(sp?) and stuff like that.

he was 7lbs 11.

DS2 was 10lb 11oz and I knew he was a whopper for ages before he was born, I had the experience of carrying a lighter (well 8b 13oz) baby beforehand though, so something to compare it too.

My bump was HUGE as well.

no no no no!! dc1 was 9lbs 4 and no-one suspected then dc2 was 10lbs13 and again no-one said! i was nearly 2 weeks late with both of them and on the morning of dc2's birth the consultant said to me "oh i wonder if this one will be as big as your last!!".

weirdly dc3 was only 8lb 6 and i had been scanned a few times to see if he was going to be as big as his brother and they were spot on with their guesstimates!

hope it all goes well for you!

I had a huge bump and was warned that DS1 wuld be huge. He was 7 1/2 lbs

The with DS2 I was similar but took no notice. Everyone just said i carried 'big'. DS2 was 9 1/2 lbs

Slightly under but my DS was 8lbs 11oz and he was 10 days early. If I had gone overdue I think he would have been about 10lbs. There was never any mention of his weight until I was in labour and the MW said "oh you have a good 8 and a half pounder there" I just looked at her in horror!

I was 1 weeks bigger with my first 2 babies and dd1 was 7lb 12oz at 38+4 and dd2 was 9lb 1oz at 40+2. I felt massive with ds, was a few weeks bigger than dates at 38 weeks - a scan showed excess fluid and a large baby, he was 9lb 9oz at 38+4.

At my 20wk scan my DS (2nd baby) measured big but nothing was done other than a diabetes test which came back clear.

Towards the end I was enormous and in pain, and the measurements were big but again nothing was done. I was induced at 10 days late, and the next day while starting labour the dr (the first and only dr I saw for the entire pregnancy) felt my tummy and said "oh I don't think he's that big"

DS was born naturally a few hours later at 11lbs 14oz

I'm glad they didn't know he was so big really as they probably would have given me a caesarian.

interesting ... so it seems that most of the time we just don't know.

not going to help my nightmares of ending up on the front pages of the local rag with a baby too big to hold the size of a 3yr old (gotta love pg dreams), but guess at this stage nothing i can do,

guess the reason i started worrying in the first place is that certain members of DPs family (who are all v skinny) seem to think that baby's size is all down to what I eat - and as was overweight at start of pregnancy size 14-16, I worry that if baby is big they will say mean things. stupid i know ...
I have put on 12lbs surely it can't all be the baby

freudian WOW 11lb 14oz -

Wow, well done FS thats a whopping boy you've got! I thought mine was huge at 10lb 4. I was also enormous and in pain. He turned up on due date (after bouncing on floor trampoline thing previous day in desperation). No sign before this that he would be big. The one person in my antenatal group who was told she might be having a big baby had a 7.5lb normal one!
FS did your boy remain big or become more average as time went on? Mine became average at about 6months, so I'm being tested for diabetes this time round.
Also agree with poster who said bigger babies easier to deliver than smaller, due to sheer gravity.

But he did have problems after birth as lungs got squashed on the way out and he had to go into special care which was hell and I was utterly unprepared for. (Not to scare you OP)

lainey have you really put on 12lb through entire pregnancy ! Wow thats hardly anything well done. I've been eating everything.

my 3 DC have all been over 9lb, and all the midwives would ever say is that it 'wasn't a tiny baby', but then that was pretty obvious because of my size, and also my own birth rate, which I believe is the significant predictor of baby's birth weight.

They never guessed at the actual weight though, and were not worried as I am quite tall.

They seem to do guesstimates in the UK a lot more than here though (2/3 not born in the UK).

A friend was recently induced a week early though, for a "huge" baby, who turned out to be 7lb...so I'm a bit about these things myself.

My DSis is a midwife and told me I was measuring weeks ahead from quite early (although she did also like to wind me up by saying I just had rubbish stomach muscles too), my own midwife got a bit at about 37 weeks also saying baby was big. I was then sent off to Obs who also measured big who then sent me off for a scan. Scan came back at 38 weeks telling me baby was perfectly normal size and about 7lbs.

Baby was 10lb 1oz and 58cms long.

I got a 3rd degree tear.

He's beautiful though.

btw 20 week scan said all normal too.

sorry , daft, I meant my own birth weight, not birth rate!

DD weighed in at 8lb 15oz - after a humongous poop! Think she would easily have topped 9lb...

No indication beforehand, I felt fine all the way through. In fact I could have gone on being pregnant for another month I reckon. My measurements were exactly on the number of cm for the number of weeks I was, all the way along.

She seems to have averaged out now - in fact most of the babies we know have overtaken her. She's 15lb 2oz at 22 weeks.

DS 2 was over 9lb and my midwife estimated him to be about 9.5lbs before he was born.

When I had DS3 they were convinced he was over 10lb and I had a section to deliver this mammoth baby. He was 7lbs 7ozs.

DS4 they told me would be tiny, 5lbs at most. He was 8lbs.

DS1 was 5lbs 10oz at 35 weeks.

DS was 10lb 5oz, predicted from growth scans (booked because I was measuring 5 weeks ahead on fundal height) to be about 10lb 7oz so pretty much on target for that.

DD was 8lb 15oz, predicted from growth scans (booked because of DS's weight and because I was measuring 3 weeks ahead on fundal height) to be about 9lb so pretty much on target too.

So far this one is measuring slightly below average (new experience for me) but I haven't hit third trimester yet.

Your own weight and weight gain is no indication of baby's weight unless both are linked to GDD. That's why doctors/MWs stopped regularly weighing pregnant women years ago - realised it didn't tell them anything about baby.

I was a bit worried at first as big babies (9lb plus) run in DH's family even down the male line. But we've had no indication our LO is big - we had a private 26 week scan and then she was on the 54th centile.

Ds was 11lbs 4oz Tho I thought he would be giagntic,and kept saying so, midwives told me about 8 lbs and not to worry.. But he was two weeks overdue.

Tbh, I don't think they can really tell as you can see from the scan story above!

And FreudianSlimmery, respect

Baby's size is only down to what you eat if you develop gestational diabetes and it isn't controlled properly through diet or insulin. But even then it's only down to what you eat at one remove it's down to your insulin levels, which may be affected by what you eat. And if you don't have GD then what you eat won't make a difference to the baby's weight at all you'll just have more weight to lose yourself after the birth.

Over here in the Banana Republic went 'private' for DD so meant being scanned etc by consultant in person every 2 weeks from 28 weeks on. At 36 week check Consultant said 'Hmmmm, 8lbs then'. At which point I went ashen and squeaked 'ALREADY?!?!?'. Fortunately, he meant BY due date. In the event she was 2 days late and bang on the button of 7lbs exactly. They ain't got a bleedin' clue. And only putting on 12 lbs during pregnancy is brill; I put on a whisker under 4 stone to cook my 7lb goose!

(Mind you, my MiL did produce a 12 lber (8th child out of 9) naturally and with no hints of largeness likely apparently pre my SiL's arrival. Or so MiL says. She was also out milking cows on due date too though that doesn't seem to be compulsory in Ireland any more thank god. )

DD was 9lb 12oz. DS was 10lb 5oz. I had a huge bump and measured big all the way through my pregnancies.

If its any consolation, I think it is normal to have some "irrational" fears. I had constant dreams during my first pregnancy that my baby was going to be a hermaphrodite