Doctors told Whitney Hallett during her 37-week ultrasound to expect giving birth to a big baby, but despite the early notice, neither family nor medical practitioners were prepared for the 16-pound baby that was delivered on May 1.
That is because doctors estimated newborn Waylon Cole to weigh about 12 pounds at birth, so when nurses finally brought him over to the scale to be weighed, they had to measure his weight more than once out of shock.
A Shocking Delivery
Edmond Hallett, Waylon's proud dad, recounted how the nurses reacted upon meeting his not-so-little newborn baby boy after delivery via caesarian section and seeing the scale register 16 pounds.
"The doctors and nurses were like, 'Oh my god!' No one could believe he actually weighed 16 pounds. At first I thought maybe the scale was broken," Edmond recalled.
He also immediately went out of the hospital to buy 6- to 9-month-old clothes for the baby boy since he quickly realized that none of the clothes they prepared would fit Waylon.
The Mother And Child's Condition
According to Edmond, his wife, 28-year-old Whitney, was diagnosed with gestational diabetes — a condition that causes babies to grow very large while in the uterus — and has already experienced delivering three other babies who all weighed heavier than the usual 7.5 pounds at birth.
In fact, Waylon's elder sisters weighed in at 8 pounds and 8 ounces, 11 pounds and 1 ounce, and 9 and pounds 14 ounces, respectively.
Waylon, on the other hand, had to stay in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit for seven weeks due to feeding and breathing issues. Whitney even set up a GoFundMe page to seek help for Waylon's hospital expenses.
Waylon's health seems to have stabilized and is finally out of the hospital. At seven weeks old, the baby now weighs 17 pounds 7 ounces.
"He sleeps a lot more than our other babies did, but he's healthy," Edmond confirms.
He also added that Waylon is a happy boy who is very alert in his waking hours and smiles a lot.
Gestational Diabetes Effects
Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that develops during pregnancy and don't usually show any symptoms until he latter half of the gestation process, but they are also at an increased risk for preeclampsia. The mother's condition usually returns to normal after childbirth, though they would be at risk for type-2 diabetes later on.
The child, however, would show more noticeable complications, just like Waylon's condition. Babies born from mothers diagnosed with gestational diabetes are usually at risk of the following complications:
• Excessive birth weight
• Early birth and respiratory distress syndrome
• Low blood sugar
• Increased risk for type-2 diabetes
Women who were diagnosed with gestational diabetes are more likely to experience it again in future pregnancies, but a healthy diet could lower the risk for type-2 diabetes.
