Please tell me your positive experiences of delivering a 9lb+ baby

[MayimBialik]

I'm having a larger baby. Likely to be over 9lb. Always expected it as I was over 9lb but scan today showed it to be 8lb9 at 39+1 and as it's my first baby chances are I'll go over 40 weeks and baby will put on a fair bit more weight.

Am now panicking slightly about giving birth to such a big'un and could do with hearing some positive stories to stop any negative thoughts from taking hold. I know the worst thing I can do is panic as this will inhibit an easy labour.

Dd2 was my biggest at 9lb the birth was fine, I had a bit of trouble with the placenta afterwards but nothing to do with her size.

All the girls have been big dd1 8.5, dd3 8.10 and they scanned me to estimate the weight with dd3 and ds (who was 7.7) and over did it every time.

They don't get it right each time with the weight estimation so don't get too worried based on that.

Also the birth is what it is - the weight of the baby doesn't really impact on it that much- my sister said her hardest and most painful birth was my nephew who weighed 3lb!

Congratulations

Mine have weighed 8, 8 15.5, 8 10 and 8 10.
Pushed them all out myself, two of them with just gas and air and the heaviest with no drugs at all.

Weight from growth scans can be inaccurate sometimes by as much as a pound.

Try to put it out of your mind

Anecdote alert here but my heaviest baby was a dream baby and easily went longer stretches between feeds but the smallest who was 3 weeks early was skinny and wanted fed constantly!

Thanks ladies. So good to hear positive stories!

And yes lyndie I've heard bigger babies are easier too.

Dd (1st dc) was 16 days late and 9lb8oz.

I enjoyed the birth! Was a lovely experience, was induced but was active/upright and labour only 6 hours. No pain relief until after delivery started (we assumed there were still 6 hours ahead of us!).

No tears, baby content throughout. Your body can do it!

The natal hypnotherapy cd in the last few weeks helped I think.

Big babies are fab!

Dd1 9 .9 .. No stitches!
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Dd2 8.4 @ 38 wks out in 4 pushes after hanging round for ages.

Both mine fed & slept well from early on....not when I slept but that's another story!

Try + relax + move around as much as possible you'll be fine.

Good luck!

I had DS who was nearly 10lbs at home in a birth pool after 2.5hrs of labour :) got three dcs and it was my best birth. Second stage only lasted 1 minute! No trauma to fanjo either ... Oh and I'm 5' 4@" so not tall either :)

DS1, 10lbs 6 after 3 hrs of labour, no stitches, easy birth

Like the others, slept like a dream, very laid back and relaxed and now 20 yrs later still laid back and chilled (has always liked his sleep!)

DC3, born last Tuesday was 9lb 3oz.

I was rather scared but it really was a lovely birth. Was induced at 12 days over, and had an epidural. Really quick labour - 2 hours from start to finish!

Did have complications after, but nothing to do with the birth, of his size.

DS was 9lb 2oz and was born with just TENS and gas & air - no stiches either.

Agree that all births are different, but there is a theory that bigger babies can help things along as there's more pressure to help you dilate quickly.

Good luck

DD2 was 9lb 2oz, active labour 45 minutes (got to 8cm without regular contractions I could feel). No pain relief at all (never got to use the TENS, gas & air/pethidine not available - was abroad - and I'm a wimp about the idea of needles in my spine). Episiotomy, but only because it was pretty much standard in the area I was (they didn't even ask)

DD2 was 10lbs 2oz, 7 hour active labour, two pushes and she popped out. I did have an epidural but I always knew I'd insist in one regardless of size or anything else.

Not a great birth story with my 10lb10 baby(had to have emergency cs) but do be prepared that mothers of tiny or even normal sized babies do love to tell you how enormous your baby is. Also health visitors can be quite offensive about how your monstrous baby is 'piling weight on'.

ds2 was just under 11 lbs. I gave birth in water with no drugs, not even gas and air (the thought of that always makes me puke). The birth was no more painful than with my other 2 dc who were smaller.

Luckily he had a fairly small head, it was his wide shoulders that were the challenge ! Poor boy was a bit bruised and squashed from his journey but he uncrumpled just fine over the next few days !

Good luck , just trust in your body and your baby to know what they are doing !

DS was 10lb. Easy as shelling peas (well, almost).

He was positioned well, just 4 pushes to get him out. Much easier than my 7lb 12 dd

He fed and slept like a dream, a very easy baby (won't go into toddler years... and ever since)

Dd was 9lb 4oz and back to back - I was induced and laboured for 6 hours - once she shifted her head she was out in seconds literally. She's my second.

Thank you so much for your replies. I already feel so much more positive and ready to 'get the job done'! Just need to get that message to the baby now so he/she gets moving [hwink]

Oh and didn't need pain relief so can't have been that bad. She also slept for pretty much the first 6 months of her life but is now a nightmare

Mine was 9lb5. Long latent phase of labour (48 hours) and then proper labour from about midnight to when he was born at 9am.

Laboured in the pool, lots of pushing, no idea how long, he had a big head (95 + centile so an episiotomy and a few stitches, no lasting effects as far as I can tell!

as pp have said, it's more the head circumference than total weight which will make the difference. weight from scans is a bit of a guessing game.

My dd was 9lb 10 and a half! Was a little tougher than ds 8lb 10 but I think that's was down to me knowing what to expect!

Plus side she was a dream baby very contended!

My ds was 10 pounds and thankfully was very easy to labour no problems at all but I had no idea he was going to be big and understand what it must be like for you with nerves about size !

Ds1, ds 2 were over 9lbs.Ds 1 took 5 hours ds2 2 hours, best advice is to keep upright. Im 5ft 2 and worried about shoulder dystocia, thankfully unnecessarily.

In my experience, they don't often get the measurements from scans very accurate.... For example, with DS1 I was told he would be "average", and my most recent scan (36 weeks) showed this apparently. When he was born at 39 weeks he was 10lb 3oz! DS2 was apparently going to be another big baby, yet he was born at 36 weeks and was completely average sized...

Mine were 8.13, 9.7, 7.15 and 11lb!

All spontaneous vaginal deliveries. No stitches.

My 11lb ds was a homebirth using a tens machine and a little gas and air. He had a huge head and the broadest shoulders! He could hold his head up right away and was just beautiful. It was the best experience of my life.

Good luck!

DD was born 4 days ago at just over 9lbs (with a big head!). She was 11 days overdue. It was a very quick and easy birth, without any pain relief. I had to run to the delivery suite, barely had the time to take off my knickers and crawl onto the table, and DD was out with just one push. I had a few stitches, but nothing bad.