New York woman gives birth to 15-pound baby girl
'I felt like I was hit by two tractor-trailers,' new mom tells publication
'I felt like I was hit by two tractor-trailers,' new mom tells publication
On March 12, Joy Buckley, from upstate New York, gave birth to her second child: a record-breaking 15-pound baby girl named Harper.
Weighing 15 pounds and measuring 23 inches, Harper is the largest baby Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira, New York, has ever seen. She might even be the biggest baby born in New York history, although the Buckleys are still waiting on confirmation.
Because of the little one's size, however, delivery escalated quickly for Buckley, who told , "It was pretty violent. She got stuck under my rib cage." Plus, it required a medical "vacuum" and a C-section.
Although giving birth to baby Harper made Buckley feel like she got "hit by two tractor-trailers" per , the healthy arrival of her baby girl is still something to celebrate. And this is especially true once you learn about what the Buckleys went through before their little bundle arrived this week.
Just a few years ago, Buckley and her husband were told by doctors that they had less than a 15 percent chance of becoming pregnant, according to . But this difficult news didn't stop the couple from trying for about seven years, at which point they gave up trying to conceive and decided to adopt. That was, until May 2016 when Buckley took a pregnancy test whose "bright blue lines all the way across" indicated that, yup, she was indeed , later giving birth to an 11-pound baby boy.
Less than two years later, Harper came along about 8 pounds heavier than the average newborn, according to the , and with a full head of hair. She was then taken to the neonatal intensive care unit to have her sugar and oxygen levels monitored, where she remains for further care. Although having her newest bundle of joy in the NICU is "hard" for Buckley, she said she trusts the doctors and knows Harper will be coming home soon enough.
The mother of now three also hopes to give couples struggling with hope, telling , "Don't give up because it's right there. It's definitely right there because my kids are total proof of that."