A mum-of-two has revealed how unprepared she was for her baby's "giant" size, as doctors estimated her newborn would weigh 9lbs – and he came out weighing a whopping 11lbs 13oz.
Ruby Eden, 24, from Warrington, took to TikTok to share a video clip of her pregnant belly when she was given the prediction, versus what her baby, whose name is Teddie, looked like after he was born. The video quickly went viral and was seen by more than 1.5 million people.
The stay-at-home mum had two last scans at 39 weeks, and the day before her baby was born at 41 weeks exactly. The midwives said that her little bundle of joy looked "slightly on the bigger side", but estimated him to be "around 9lbs". This was a similar weight to Ruby and her husband's firstborn, Delilah-Rose, who was born in November 2020, so she wasn't concerned.
Ruby told The Mirror: "The pregnancy was completely normal. He was estimated at a normal weight throughout the whole pregnancy."
"My daughter was 8lbs 13oz so we just thought he'd be roughly the same size as her, nothing to worry about."
Teddie was born with polyhydramnios, where there is too much amniotic fluid around the baby during pregnancy. Ruby explains that he "had a lot of issues with his kidneys and his bowels that created a bit of worry", so he had to come out soon after her final scan.
"He was born the next day [after the 41 week scan] via C-section, which was sort of half emergency, half elective. It wasn't anything to do with his weight, even though everyone seems to think so."
Teddie was born on August 1 2022, eight days after his due date – but his mum couldn't have prepared for how wrong the doctors were about his weight.
Ruby revealed: "Not one person could have warned me about how big he was. After they pulled him out of the section every single person in the theatre gasped. The midwife just looked at me and said 'he is a giant' and I thought 'oh that's great', and then she was like 'no, he's huge' and I was like 'oh, ok'."
They weighed Teddie straight away in the theatre and "every single person was shocked".
Ruby added: "I've always said he was a toddler when he was born. He was giant. When I saw him I wasn't sure, but then I held him and I was like 'yeah he is..'."
After birth Teddie did have some problems keeping weight on due to issues with his liver. Ruby explained: "His liver couldn't turn the calories he was getting from breastfeeding into glucose so he ended up losing quite a bit of weight and ended up being quite ill and constantly in hospital."
However, Teddie is now six months old and is doing so much better.
Ruby said: "At the minute he's still considered an extremely large baby for his age."
However, "he's doing 100 times better now," said Ruby. She added: "He's not going to hospitals or doctors anymore. They are all happy about the pure amount of weight he's managed to gain."
Do you have a story to share? We pay for stories. Email us at yourmirror@mirror.co.uk
