Nov 29, 2009
Couple Welcomes Their Own Thanksgiving Butterball: A 15 lb., 6 oz. Baby
Yes! More than 15 pounds. And he was — get this — three weeks premature. If the baby had waited until he was full-term to make his debut, he would have been big enough to WALK OUT of his mother’s vagina on his own. True story.
This part is especially funny: The baby’s mom, Wendi Dolton, had no clue how large her son was, so when she heard a doctor say the number “fifteen-six” moments after the C-section, she thought he was referring to the time.
“And he goes, ‘weight.’
“And I said, ‘wait for what?’”
“And he goes, ‘no, the weight.”
Wendi’s next response: “Are you kidding me?”
To which the doctor should have responded, “Who’s on first?”
As if weighing twice as much as his peers won’t demand enough respect, his parents also gave him a bad-ass name: Axel LaVerne.
For now Axel is in neonatal intensive care at a hospital in Minnesota. His parents say he’s being monitored for a heart condition associated with premature birth. Not surprisingly, Axel barely fit in a preemie isolette.
“He lays up there by these little two pounders and one pounders and three pounders and here he takes up the whole cart,” explains Wendi. “And they actually moved him to a bigger bed. He’s a big boy, he’s broad. He’s going to be my little linebacker I think.”
Thankfully, Big Axel is doing well and his parents hope to bring him home soon.
Wendi is used to big babies. Her first daughter Naomi, 9, weighed more than nine pounds at birth. Sister Emma, 6, weighed more than 11 pounds, earning her the nickname “Pork Chop.” Which will do wonders for her self-esteem when she’s a teenager.
The Doltons’ Thanksgiving baby now has a nickname too. “Butterball, yep, our butterball,” laughs his mom. “Big cheeks, big chubby cheeks and no neck.”
A nine pound baby, followed by an eleven pound baby and now a 15 pound baby. Do we hear 20?
“We’re done,” say Axel’s parents almost in unison. Adds Wendi for emphasis, “I’m not doing this again.”
Ah, too bad. I can just see the headline now: “WOMAN GIVES BIRTH TO BABY BIGGER THAN TOM CRUISE!” And could probably do a better German accent, too.
Mrs. Harrison Ford
says:
Was this a vaginal delivery? If so, Oh Holy Jesus.
November 29th, 2009 at 11:53 pm -Candy
says:
Good question! It was a C-section, thank heavens.
My cousin *did* give birth to an eleven-pounder via vaginal delivery a couple years ago. Yowza.
–Mrs. George Clooney
November 30th, 2009 at 12:03 am -Eize
says:
Wouldn’t want to carry that big a bebe to term (history of diabetes and such), but damn it, I want to smoosh them cheeks!
November 30th, 2009 at 8:52 pm -