Baby boom! 16-lb. newborn may set Texas record............

JaMichael Brown was born 2 feet long, with full head of hair and 17-inch chest.

Coming out of the womb weighing more than 16 pounds, JaMichael Brown couldn’t even fit in one of his home states famous 10-gallon hats. Even in a place where everything is reputedly bigger, the newborn boy may have set the record for the biggest baby ever born in Texas. Proud parents Janet Johnson and Michael Brown revealed their jumbo-size bundle of joy live via satellite from Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview on TODAY Monday. As JaMichael rested comfortably in his daddy’s arms, Brown told Ann Curry that the couple, who have three older children, may finally have a star football player in the family.“Or maybe basketball player,” Brown said. “I was just amazed when he came out, how big he was.I’m just proud of him … [we’re a] proud family.”Johnson, a geriatric nurse who suffered gestational diabetes during her pregnancy with JaMichael, was used to having big babies, but the largest she had ever delivered before weighed in at 8 pounds. This time around, her doctor told her to expect a baby weighing between 12 and 13 pounds.

Great expectations
So the family made some provisions. Johnson gave out special instructions to the ladies attending the baby shower. “I just said we were expecting a big baby,” she told KYTX-TV in Tyler, Texas. “To not get any newborn stuff.”

But doctors underestimated just how big JaMichael would be. When he came into the world via Cesarean section a little after 9 a.m. last Friday, he weighed 16 pounds, 1 ounce. JaMichael was born with a full head of hair, measuring a full 2 feet long with a head measurement of 15 inches and a chest measuring 17 inches.

Those are the kind of numbers more associated with a baby 3 to 6 months old than a just-arrived infant.

JaMichael quickly earned the nickname “The Moose” around hospital corridors, and sent folks scurrying to look through the record books. According to Guinness World Records, the biggest baby on record weighed in at 23.12 pounds at birth back in 1879 in Canada. But researchers haven’t found a baby in the Lone Star State ever born bigger than JaMichael

Janet Johnson told Curry the family is already scrambling to make provisions for their larger-than-expected newborn. Even though they bought big in anticipation of his arrival, his actual size dwarfed expectations. In fact, the hospital’s newborn unit did not have diapers big enough to fit him.

“A lot of the stuff we bought for him is too little,” Johnson told Curry. “So we have to exchange some things.”

Janet’s diabetes during her pregnancy may have contributed to JaMichael’s whopping size at birth and has led caretakers at the Good Shepherd Medical Center to pay close attention to the baby during his first days of life.

“It’s a beautiful baby, but for health reasons, we’d rather not see a baby this large,” hospital nurse Mary Beth Smith, who was in the delivery room for JaMichael’s birth, told KYTX. “They can have a little harder time maintaining their blood sugar.”

Video: Newborn baby boy tips the scale at 16 pounds (on this page)

While JaMichael was placed in the hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, reports are that he’s progressing well. And it shouldn’t be long before he leaves the hospital and makes his big debut before the family’s friends and kinfolk.

“I’m happy,” Johnson told the Longview News-Journal. “We’ll be here for a few more days, and then I’m looking forward to bringing JaMichael home and just loving on him.”

Still, the task of delivering a 16-pound baby has probably made Johnson’s fourth child her last. “That’s it, no more now,” she said.

                          By Michael Inbar
TODAY.com contributor TODAY.com contributor
updated 7/11/2011 10:14:03 AM ET 2011-07-11T14:14:03

Post Reply

Posted: at 12-07-2011 07:35 AM (12 years ago) | Hero

Really amazing

Posted: at 12-07-2011 08:20 AM (12 years ago) | Hero

to God be the glory.............

Posted: at 12-07-2011 09:54 AM (12 years ago) | Addicted Hero

You can say that again

Posted: at 12-07-2011 11:05 AM (12 years ago) | Hero

Yea, heard bout this...indeed amazing. But then again, you are talking about TEXAS, the DEEP SOUTH where everything from chitlins to dumplings are eaten. Nothing is impossible. lol

Posted: at 13-07-2011 04:20 PM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac

Yea, heard bout this...indeed amazing. But then again, you are talking about TEXAS, the DEEP SOUTH where everything from chitlins to dumplings are eaten. Nothing is impossible. lol

You may be right though

Posted: at 13-07-2011 04:40 PM (12 years ago) | Hero

God is wonderful.
omo that opening go don tear

Posted: at 13-07-2011 04:43 PM (12 years ago) | Hero

lol. How e go tear na. no be rubber?

Posted: at 13-07-2011 04:49 PM (12 years ago) | Hero

,

Posted: at 13-07-2011 05:39 PM (12 years ago) | Hero

thank god

Posted: at 13-07-2011 06:44 PM (12 years ago) | Upcoming

,

Posted: at 14-07-2011 12:02 PM (12 years ago) | Hero

Like mother like baby. Goodluck to them

Posted: at 14-07-2011 01:04 PM (12 years ago) | Upcoming

Noted and well documented..

Posted: at 14-07-2011 01:08 PM (12 years ago) | Hero

this baby big ooooo  

Posted: at 14-07-2011 01:14 PM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac

Whitedove

You wan make your own big like that? I get the magic

Posted: at 15-07-2011 03:25 PM (12 years ago) | Hero

,

Posted: at 18-07-2011 04:49 PM (12 years ago) | Hero

--------------------------

Posted: at 20-07-2011 05:04 PM (12 years ago) | Hero

God is wonderful.
omo that opening go don tear

Who told u it is thru openning that she gave birth?they said it is thru CS

Posted: at 21-07-2011 11:00 AM (12 years ago) | Upcoming

i wonda how she take born this kind baby....16pounds? ......OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted: at 21-07-2011 11:33 AM (12 years ago) | Newbie

i wonda how she take born this kind baby....16pounds? ......OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cathy u no read the story they said thru CS she gave birth that is operation so it is possible

Posted: at 21-07-2011 12:01 PM (12 years ago) | Upcoming

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