Mom, docs marvel at 13-lb baby

SAN DIEGO (AP):

A Southern California woman says doctors predicted she would give birth to a big baby boy, but nobody was prepared for just how big.

Jayden Sigler weighed in at 13 pounds, 14 ounces, when the healthy boy was delivered Thursday by Caesarean section.

His mother, Cynthia Sigler of Vista, said that her immediate reaction was: "How'd he fit?"

Doctors initially estimated that Jayden would weigh about nine pounds, but that number jumped to 11 by early March, the mother told the North County Times.

Dr Jerald White, who delivered the baby at Tri-City Medical Center, said Jayden was the biggest of the 20,000 newborns he has helped usher into the world since he started in 1961.

The doctor said delivering a very large baby via Caesarean section is more challenging, but "it wasn't so difficult that it created a problem for anybody."

While Jayden will likely make a big dent in the doctor's memory, he's small compared to the largest baby ever delivered: a baby born at 23 pounds, 12 ounces in January 1879, according to the Guinness Book of Records. That newborn was said to have died 11 hours after birth.

The largest surviving birth, according to Guinness, was a boy born in 1955 who weighed 22 pounds, 8 ounces.