15-pound newborn surprises mom, breaks records in New York hospital

Do you remember how big your child was at birth? Joy Buckley, a third-time mama from Upstate New York will never forget.

Her daughter Harper was born on March 12 at the Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira, New York, weighing in at 15 pounds, 5 ounces.

Harper is Buckley’s third child. After struggling with infertility for years, she and her husband decided to adopt. They were raising their daughter when they were surprised to find out Buckley was pregnant.

Her first child was born in 2016 and came into the world weighing 11 pounds, which is still a lot higher than the average weight or 7.5 pounds (but anything 5.5 pounds and 10 pounds is considered normal).

Knowing that her first biological child’s weight was off the charts, Buckley prepared herself for Harper to be a heavyweight, but she had no idea her baby girl would be the biggest baby ever born in that hospital.

“I knew she was gonna be big,” Buckley told WEMT 18 News, “but I didn’t anticipate no 15-pound baby.”

Harper was born via C-section and the process was “pretty intense”, Buckley told HuffPost.

Facebook

“The next day I felt as if I had been run down by two tractor trailers,” the mom of three explains.

Harper required care in the NICU after her birth to have her sugar and oxygen levels monitored, and both mama and baby are now recovering from their unique birth experience.

According to the University of Rochester Medical Center, diabetes is the most common cause for a baby being born so large (the Washington Post reports Buckley has Type 2 diabetes) but a high birth weight can also be related to how much weight a mother gains in pregnancy, and “some babies are large because their parents are large.”

Buckley told Women’s Health Harper is “so large because of big genetics per the doctor,” and her brother’s weight seems to back up that statement.

Whatever caused Harper to weigh so much, her mama is just glad she’s here and hopes her birth gives hope to other couples struggling with infertility. “I don’t care about the state record. I don’t care about the news articles,” Buckley told The New York Post. “I care that I was given the opportunity to become a mom again.”

You might also like:

• Giving birth was nothing like what I expected
• These viral birth photos are helping parents picture life in the womb
• My traumatic birth shaped the way I planned for my second delivery