I know he's bigger than average, but how big will he be?

[booboobunny]

at my 20 week scan i was told my baby is in the 95% for size and i was booked in for a 32 week growth scan. i had this last week when i was 32+3 weeks. from this scan they said he had a big head (not surprising given the father!) which is nothing to worry about apparently, and the current weight was around 5lb 4oz. what they didn't say, and i never thought to ask, was what this might indicate his birth weight might be if i go to term.

i am booked in to have another scan at 36 weeks and to be honest, i really want them to say they are going to induce as i'm quite nervous about it all this time around and especially worried if the baby gets too big.

does anyone have any idea/experience of what potential birthweight might be based on current estimated weight?

Please don't worry too much about this. I had numerous scans (for various reasons) with DD and they kept predicting a monster baby.

She was born at 38 weeks by elective CS and they told me that day to expect a good eight and half pounds - she was a dainty 7lb 6oz!

booboobunny I had exactly the same at my 20 week scan and have been booked for a 24 week scan. My last baby (4th baby) was 9lb13oz so I kinda expected this one to be large too.
My mw said its nothing to worry about as she did the fundul measurements and just said it will probably be a 10lder. Think of it as youll get to see baby again with another scan. What size was youe last baby?

Scans can be out by a lot, I wouldn't agree to an induction based on size from a scan.

My first baby was predicted 'over 9lb' by scan. I was told that if I wasn't induced I would need a cs. He was 7lb13.

That was a 42w.

Meant to say, DD being born at 38 weeks had very little, if not nothing, to do with her size. It was all down to problems with me.

Try not to worry, as everyone says, scans can be out by a lot! My friend had her little boy in July..for 8 weeks they had her worried, showing his growth on the charts as way over the top percentile line, at 36 weeks they told her he was already 10-12 lb! They were scanning her every week and tried to get her to have an elective cs but she compromised with an induction at term..the result? Delivered by Mum alone when she went for a pee (having just been told she was only 2cm dilated) and so born in the hospital bathroom, he was 6lb 14oz !(but with a big rugby ball shaped head).

Estimated weight was way out with ds. I was told that he was 'over 9lb' at 37+ weeks. He was born at 3 weeks (induced) and was 6lb 10 oz.

38 weeks, not 3 weeks

there is a margin for error in estimating size either with growth scans or palpation

women tend to grow the size of baby they can birth ...

if you and / or your DH are tall and / or well built, you are more likely to have a longer and / or bigger baby

i had a growth scan at 35 weeks, after measuring 3 weeks bigger, my DD was born on her due date weighing 7 lb 8 !

try not to worry too much, have confidence that you can do this...there are different birth positions to try if you are having a bigger baby, that open up the pelvis more

I was told that dd would be average size, i didn't measure big dueing the whole pregnancy.

DD was born at 39weeks and 9lb 4oz.

I am now 40 + 5 and i again measuring to size, so i am dreading what size this one will be. Hopefully it be much longer before i find out.

Don't worry too much. I was told at 34 weeks that ds was 6lb 1oz already and would probably be over 9lb at birth. He weighed 8lb 2oz in the end and was born at 40+3 I actually told them they must have got the weight wrong cos getting him out he felt like he was at least 9lb!!!!!!

i would avoid being induced if you can. i was induced at 39+5 due to pre-eclamsia and it was a very painful exp. someone afterwards told me it was because my body didn't have time to build up endorphins which happens in spontaneous labour. don't know if that's true or not but i've spoken to other women who have said that their induced labour was much worse than normal labour.

also my ds was predicted 8 lb and was 8 lb 13oz so there's def room for error!

hth

I was told at my 33 week scan that ds would be 'over 9 lb'. He was just over 7.

yas - me too. Terrifying predictions of a huge baby . he was 7lbs 8. ( and consultant told me she was piloting a new method of sexing baby which she would publish soon. Babe was def a girl she said. He was of course a boy.
and for 2nd babe no one said a word and he was just under 10lbs.

hi,
thanks for the replies, i suppose i hadn't realised, but all those who were told to expect a monster and actually had a 'normal' size baby, did the monster feel heavy? this baby feels really heavy to carry around so i'm kind of buying into the idea that it will be big on that basis. plus my bump has consistently measured 3 cms larger than my weeks - but this could be down to the chips.....my daughter was a very average 7lb 9oz, but everyone says you generally have bigger subsequent babies as there's more room, which sounds very believable.

i would actually love to have either an elective cs or be induced because i could ensure my mother was in place to look after my daughter and i wouldn't be worrying about her when i should be pushing!

1st baby - 7lb13
2nd baby - 6lb15
Subsequent babies are not always bigger.

It's far better for the baby not to have a elective c section or induction unless medical reasons state otherwise.

My first was 6lb4
2nd 7lb10
3rd 9lb4

Funnily enough though the smallest was the hardest by far, although she was my first. Big doesnt necesarrily mean, harder labour, often your body works more effectively to get a bigger baby out, with the extra weight bearing down.

Dont worry about it, when I was in labour with no 3 I was really tense anticipating a hard delivery and the midwife asked what was wrong, DH said I was worried a bout a big baby, as soon as he had voiced my concerns I felt I could relax and birthed within minutes. Good luck.

Scans in the third trimester are 60% accurate. Which isn't very reliable, is it? 36 weeks pregnant I had a scan and I was told my daughter was on the 99th centile, four weeks later she was born and her weight was exactly on the 50th centile. Don't believe the hype.

The sizing thing always puzzles me. My dd is 16 months now and when I was pregnant no one mentioned size to me at all. I asked at my last scan and the answer was totally non-commital. I had no idea what to expect. When dd arrived at a petite 6lbs3oz 3 days before her due date I was a bit surprised she was so small. Is it common practice to do sizing scans?

My baby felt very heavy, I could barely walk. Turned out to be because there was lots of fluid and the baby was very low.

I had to have growth scans at 36 weeks with my 1st and 3rd dcs. Both times I was told that it wasn't hospital policy to induce babies early just because of size. If the size was due to GD then they probably would but not if you and your baby were otherwise okay.

Like lots of other people have said, the growth scans are massively unreliable anyway. I was told ds1 would be 9 1/2 to 10lbs, he was 8lbs 8oz, dd I was told was 'average' and she was 8lbs 4oz, ds2 I was told would be 9lbs ish and he was 10lbs 2.5oz.

A couple of friends of mine had babies a couple of days apart and one was told she couldn't have a VBAC as the baby looked as though it would be 10lbs and it was too risky, the other had lots of scans because her baby seemed to be small for dates and they thought she'd be 5-6lbs. The first friend's was 8lbs 1oz, the second was 11lbs 4oz . How wrong can you be?

So, th moral of the story is, don't take the weight from the scan as gospel, your baby may be bigger, but it may well be smaller.

I had a growth scan at 37 weeks with ds. He was 98 on the growth chart thing. He was predicted to be 10 lber. Born at 42 weeks 11 lb 4 so can be accurate. However, they can tell if you can get them out. The doc I saw after the scan told me I would have no problems getting a big baby out and she was right.

I can add another "they said my baby would be ginormous but she wasn't" story.

All I got through my pregnancy was how IMPOSSIBLY HUGE my baby would be. Which was nice to hear . Plus DP is a really big build with a huge head, and I'm not that big. Plus strangers on the street kept insisting I must be having twins because "Oh my god you're so frighteningly enormous!!" (I'm paraphrasing).

In the end DD was 8lb 14oz, which isn't tiny but not exactly monster either. Nothing my body couldn't handle.

Oh, and inductions are HARD.