Quick Labor, Big Baby

By Lauri Kashkin

I was pregnant with my fourth baby and due on February 7. All of my other babies were at least a week early, so I figured this one would be too.

My pregnancy was pretty uneventful. I had gestational diabetes, but there weren't any serious complications. On January 26, I went in for a sonogram, so they could see how big the baby was getting. The woman doing the sonogram said that the baby was about 8 pounds 6 ounces. I thought, OK, I can do that! So, I went home, thinking that I was going to have about a 9-pound baby by the time he was born. I hadn't been feeling well most of the day and the pushing from the sonogram didn't help.

After dinner that night I thought that I felt a contraction, so I checked the time. About 15 minutes later, I had another one. After the third one 10 minutes later, I told my husband to start keeping track. Well, from that point on, I didn't waste any time. I had them about every four minutes. At about 9 p.m., we left to got to the hospital. When we got there, they checked my cervix and I was an 8! Too late for ANY pain medication! After about 45 minutes the doctor broke my water and at 12:27 a.m., Nicholas Leon Robert Kashkin made his appearance! He was 22 inches long and did NOT weigh 8 pounds. He weighed 9 pounds 13 ounces!! He is the biggest baby I have had!