My newborn was bigger than a 10-person Xmas turkey – all 3 of mine have been huge, people always think I’m having twins
MEET the mum with three children who were born at a combined weight of 31lbs 7oz – with one weighing more than mum and her twin together when they were born.
Sarah Richards, 34, welcomed her first child, Freddie, on 6th May 2008 – weighing in at 9lbs 8oz (4.3kg).
Eight years later, on the 21st January 2016, Sarah gave birth to her second, Sofia, who was born at a whopping 11lbs 9oz (5.2kg) – bigger than a 10-person Christmas turkey.
Finally, on the 26th April 2021, Sarah and her husband welcomed Lacey-Jane – who gave Sofia a run for her money at 10lbs 6oz (4.7kg).
The average birth weight for babies in the UK is around 7lb 8oz (3.4 kg) for boys 7lb 4oz (3.3 kg) for girls.
Throughout all three, Sarah was told by people that she looked much further ahead in her pregnancy – with many questioning if she was having twins.
With Freddie, she was told by people in the hospital that her newborn looked like he was three months old.
Thanks to their chunky sizes, all three babies also wore clothes for children between the ages of 3-6 just months after being born.
Sarah, a nursery practitioner, from Manchester, said: “I’m a twin myself and Sofia’s birthweight was more than my twin sister and I put together.
“All the time people would think I was much further ahead and with Lacey-Jane people thought I was carrying twins.
“With Sofia, I bought the first size nappies and she had to go straight to bigger sizes.
“And because Freddie was big we just bought 0-3 size nappies in preparation.
“We’ve shown them pictures of when they were born – we refer to Sofia as our little sumo wrestler.
“All three of them now are really skinny – when people hear how much they weighed at birth they’re gobsmacked at how they look now.”
Sarah believes the reason behind their weight is believed to be their dad’s birth weight.
She said: “No one could believe how big they were.
“Their dad was over 9lbs when he was born.
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“With Freddie, I was only 16 and it was a really straightforward pregnancy and he ended up being born early with an emergency c-section.
“You could tell he was going to be on the bigger side but not nearly 10lbs!
“Again, with Sofia no complications but they could tell she was big quite early on.
“I was tested for diabetes but it came back negative so we planned a c-section with and they estimated her weight to be the same as Freddie so when she came out at 11lbs 9oz it was quite a shock.
“Lacey-Jane, again there wasn’t much in the way of sickness but I had extra fluid.
“She was big from the start as well.
“At this point, I had a diabetes diagnosis so they think they may have missed it with Sofia.
“Lacey-Jane was born six weeks early she was getting too big – in three days they think she grew around 1lbs and a half.”