Parents Stunned by 'Big and Beautiful' 14-Pound Newborn
A Massachusetts couple is recovering after welcoming an unexpectedly large bundle of joy.
Carisa Ruscak was born weighing in at 14.5 pounds Wednesday, according to ABC News affiliate WCVB-TV in Boston.
Carisa's parents, Caroline and Bryan Ruscak, had expected a big baby, but maybe not one quite so large. The couple's first daughter, Claudia, was born at 10.5 pounds.
"I heard the weight and I was like, 'Oh, my God,'" Caroline Ruscak said. "It validated me because I was in a lot of pain when I was pregnant, so to hear the size, it made sense."
Carisa Rusack weighed an impressive 14 and a half pounds at birth. (WCVB-TV)
Carisa was delivered via caesarian section Wednesday and is the biggest infant to be delivered at Massachusetts General Hospital in 12 years, according to WCVB.
"When she came out at 14 and a half pounds, I couldn't believe it," dad Bryyn Ruscak said. "I took a picture of the scale just to document it because I couldn't believe how big she was. And long, too: 22 inches is long. That's what we like, long and big. That's what I am."
About one in 1,000 babies could weigh 11 pounds, and in every 100,000 could weigh 14 pounds, says Dr. Robert Barbieri, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. A 14-pound baby, he said in an earlier interview, is extremely rare, and usually a doctor will induce labor if a baby appears oversize.
Neither Caroline Ruscak nor Carisa has diabetes, which can also lead to larger newborns.
"Big and beautiful: Claudia and Carisa. I'll be in trouble in a few years, but that's OK," Bryan Rusack said. "I feel very lucky."