In the middle of the celebration of Earth Day last April 22, a bouncing baby girl was on the way. But she was no ordinary baby. She was quite large for normal newborn.
Carisa Ruscak, who was delivered via Caesarean section at the Massachusetts General Hospital, weighed a whopping 14.5 pounds and was 22 inches long-a weight almost similar to that of an average six-month-old infant, and she is by far the biggest newborn delivered at the hospital in more than a decade, WCVB-TV Boston reported.
"When she came out at 14 and a half pounds, I couldn't believe it," Carisa's father Bryan shared. "I took a picture of the scale just to document it because I couldn't believe how big she was... That's what we like, long and big. That's what I am."
A second-time mom bearing a big child, Caroline admits expecting a rather painful delivery because she assumed the child would also be a full-size like her two-year-old firstborn Claudia, who then weighed a hefty 10.5 pounds.
Although parents Caroline and Bryan Ruscak and their doctor expected the baby to be a big one, they were surprised to find out that Carisa came out quite bigger than anticipated. Caroline even shared one instance during her final months of pregnancy where she almost became annoyed with people who kept asking if she was going to have twins.
In fact, when Caroline underwent a check up three weeks prior her due date, she was told that her second offspring would weigh only 11 pounds.
"I heard the (Carisa's) weight and I was like, 'Oh my God.' It validated me because I was in a lot of pain when I was pregnant, so to hear the size, it made sense," she said. "Everyone in the operating room was like, 'Oh my God, look at the size of this baby! Let's get her on the scale. What does she weigh?' Nobody could believe it."
According to the American Diabetes Association, infants who are born to mothers with gestational diabetes are often larger than other babies. Mothers may also experience birth complications should they acquire this type during late pregnancy. Fortunately, for baby Carisa and mom Caroline, both were diagnosed negative of diabetes and were free from complications.
Carisa was only a few ounces lighter that the biggest baby born in a hospital way back in 2002.
