I’m 37 weeks pregnant. After reviewing my recent ultrasound images, and measuring and poking my great big belly, my doctor says the baby is currently about 8 pounds.
He said this means if I go all the way to 40 weeks, the baby could be over 10 pounds. :eek:
I am now reconsidering my “no epidural” decision.
I know, everybody is different, but if it helps any (which it probably won’t) for one thing those ultrasound estimates are often pretty far off, and for another, my niece-in-law has delivered four babies at home, the smallest of which was about 11 pounds.
In any case, good luck to both you and the little one. Because of course, the first thing to say here is, “Oooh, a baby!”
I have one brother who was over 8 pounds at birth and a second who was over 9, and my mother is still walking around to talk about it. Still, I’m pretty sure that at the time they were born, epidurals were the order of the day.
Me (my mother’s first): 8.5 lbs
My brother (2nd in birth order): 10+ lbs
My sister (last in birth order… for obvious reasons): 12 lb 13 oz.
One of my son’s was 8 lb 5 oz, and the other was 7 lb 6 oz.
They’re twins, born at 39 weeks. Pity their mother.
Congrats, though! Hope you enjoy the experience, and being a mother. 
My brother and I were close to 10 lbs. I think I was 9lb 8oz and he was 9lb 12oz. Mom had c-section for both of us.
My niece is coming tomorrow, 2 days early, with a planned c-section. She’s already 10 lbs.
I honestly had no idea until my friends started having kids recently that 7-8 lbs was the norm!
Since we’ve found out that the baby is so big, everyone is saying that “big babies are easy/mellow.” So, here’s hoping that yours is mellow too
At about the same point in my pregnancy, they told me my oldest son was going to be at least 9 lbs. He weighed 6 lbs 14 oz. My second son weighed exactly the same (although he was 1" shorter).
Ultrasounds aren’t fool-proof! I have two friends who recently had babies - one was told her baby would likely be enormous at birth, the other, tiny.
They were both about 7.5 lbs.
Apparently big babies run in my husband’s family. He and his two sisters, as well as his mom and her siblings, ranged from 9-11 pounds at birth.
So this is all his fault. 
We had almost the same estimate at around 36 weeks, with our son - doc said at the current rate, our son would be 10 lbs by the due date. My wife was terrified, since she tends to go past her due date. Don’t worry - while he was the biggest of all our kids at birth, he was still only 8 lbs. 2 oz., even 9 days overdue. Plus, with my daughters, who were both less than 7.5 lbs., the Dr. said they’d likely be close to 9.
Personally I think it’s irresponsible for doctors to give estimates like this, unless there is a critical health concern - my wife was so worried she’d be dropping a frickin’ bowling ball, but his labor wasn’t much more difficult than that of the girls.
Uh oh. I was talking to a pregnant friend yesterday about how both big babies and twins run in my family. My lil bro was over 10lbs (Mom did not have any drugs!) and my grandpa 12lbs; I was pretty little in comparison at just over 8lbs. And between my parents they have at least 4 sets of twin first cousins, and mom had a set of twins as an aunt and uncle. I joked that I wouldn’t mind twins because they’d be smaller. But maybe not much smaller, huh?
We had overestimates as well. They mostly go by the size of the bones, so they expected my daughter to be heavy. She wasn’t, she was long and skinny. If a measurement is going to cause you dread about the delivery, I would think it should be the size of the head rather than the expected weight.
Ultrasound estimations are only accurate to within Two Pounds at best! This means that your baby could be anywhere from 6 to 10 lbs right now. This range can be worse if the mother is considered overweight. Also, Don’t believe any doctor that tells you you should have a C-section because of “suspected macrosomia”, or “big baby”. Macrosomia is not one of the indicators for planned C-section. This is one of the tricks that not-so-honest OBs use to get you to schedule or agree to major abdominal surgery. Good OBs don’t generally do this. I’ll tell you, they told me that my second baby was going to be 10 pounds, and I should get a C-section because of it. I refused, and had him vaginally. He was 8 lbs.
Be careful when choosing epidurals. They have a tendency to slow down labor, and tie you to the bed so you can’t move properly, which can cause fetal distress. The only remedy for fetal distress is immediate delivery, which again means major abdominal surgery. To put it in perspective, a cesarean is one of the most commonly performed surgeries in the U.S., and it has similar risks to having your appendix out, PLUS some. Please please research the risk vs. reward of anesthesia and other interventions.
I’m not bashing epidurals or C-sections here. They’re exceedingly useful and important. I’m only saying to make sure you are informed ahead of time, because while you’re in labor, understanding risk vs. reward being explained to you for the first time may not sink in. At that point, sometimes you just want the pain to stop, the baby out, etc., and aren’t paying attention to permanent damage info.
Congrats … and good luck…
“That’s a big baby”, words my OBGYN said in addition to “hurry and put her on the scale I think we have a 10 pounder”, after my 10lb 3 oz baby girl was born. It wasn’t her head that hurt coming out, it was those shoulders! She was the biggest baby in the nursery for a couple days, our own little sack of potatoes 
Best of luck to you!
I had 3 kids and I am not (or wasn’t at the time) overweight:
8 lbs 11 oz, 20 inches long; girl
10 lbs 4 oz, 22 inches long; boy
9 lbs 12 oz, 21 inches long; boy
None of them were epidurals or C-secxns (YMMV). The first one, I had Stadol IV, a drug since taken off the market (I have forgotten why). The second one, I asked the OB when he was discharging me why I didn’t get an epidural(but I did get Demerol IV). He said I didn’t ask for one (I had no strong feeling for or against). Hmmph. Third one, I got a pupendal block, which was lovely. He was an occipital-posterior lie (head down, but facing the “wrong way”) and that labor was worse than the others.
Of the three, I liked the pupendal block best–it numbed the “affected area” (so to speak) but I could still push and walk and pee.
Here is some info on it: pudendal block
Keep in mind that any invasive procedure brings with it the risk of infection, so an epidural has that risk as well (hell, giving birth put you at risk for infection–just ask Dr Semmelweiss!).
IANAD, just telling you what worked for me.
The same thing happened to me. I had an emergency c-section at 35 weeks, and they did an ultrasound just before the surgery to check his positioning. The tech told me my son was most likely 8 to 8.5 pounds. I was shocked, wondering how big he’d be if I gone the whole 40 weeks.
Turned out he was just barely five pounds. :smack:
Ultrasound estimates can be way off. I delivered once with no epidural and once I had a c-section (baby insisted on being butt down at the end probably because the cord was wrapped around his neck three times.)
with an epidural. Recovering from the epidural was as unpleasant as recovering from the surgery. I felt a quart low for weeks and felt like my brain was getting battered around if I moved too fast. Birth with no epidural was a far quicker recovery and I felt better immediately after.
I had two babies, a 9.5 pound and an 11 pound. Both without drugs of any sort. Both without stitches as well, due to a great OB who made it his business to know his business. I had 11 hours of labor with the first and 8 hours with the second. Went home the same day, within hours actually. Hope this helps!
I’ve got a friend who just squirted out an eleven-pounder. It looks about six months older than it is.
My mother is only 5’3" and very slender at the time. My Brother, her first child, was 10 pounds. She ahd very little trouble, but then this was the '60s so goodness only knows what drugs they pumped into her. Anyhoo, it was a normal delivery.