Mom births14-pound baby, as heavy as a Thanksgiving turkey

BY PAM LOBLEY

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

NOW THAT'S FUNNY

Kendall Stewardson gave birth to her second son Asher completely naturally. She had no surgery and no painkillers. That’s especially impressive because Asher weighed 13 pounds, 13 ounces, which is just about 14 pounds.

That is a big baby. Any place this kid lives for the rest of his life, he will say “Wow, this place is roomy!”

The Iowa mom says that natural childbirth was important to her and her family, so she was very committed to it. She was in labor for only six hours before she was able to push the baby out. Just for perspective, here are some other things that weigh in the neighborhood of 14 pounds:

A Thanksgiving turkey
A Jack Russell terrier
Two gallons of water
A four-month old baby

I think Ms. Stewardson deserves some respect. My first baby was eight pounds and my second was eight and a half. That was big enough for me, thank you. I needed drugs, surgery, and one extremely handsome male nurse (apologies to my husband) to get them out.

Asher was born at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa. Mercy officials said that only one-tenth of one percent of babies weigh more than 11 pounds at birth. Babies that are unusually large are technically called “macrosomic” and can be the result of an obese mother, or a mother who has developed gestational diabetes. But often, the babies are large for no apparent reason and have no identifiable risk factors.

It seems that Asher is one of those big, healthy babies. He, his parents and his big brother appeared on Good Morning America, and they look like one, big happy family. I’d be curious to see Asher in a few years and learn if he is bigger than his peers or if the size thing kind of all evened out.

Watching babies grow into children is always a delight. My eight-pounder is now 5-foot-8, 135 pounds, with all kinds of hair on his legs. Every time I wake him up in the morning, I am struck with love and awe at how much he has grown.

I am so grateful he did it AFTER he left my body.

Pam Lobley writes the “Now That’s Funny” column. Follow her on Twitter @plobley.