For Mike Forsythe, becoming a new father was surreal. As he stood in the hospital delivery room, he was expecting to hear only his wife screaming as they welcomed a new baby.
But that wasn't the case for Mike and his wife, Christine. Instead, after having C-section as per their doctor's recommendation, their son, Michael, was welcomed to this world last Wednesday with a roomful of doctors and nurses in South Miami yelling, "This is huge!"
That's because Michael Forsythe is one of the largest babies ever born in Miami. Baby Forsythe weighed in at 12 pounds 13 ounces when he was born at 12:14 p.m. last Wednesday at South Miami Hospital.
To put that into perspective, the average newborn weighs 7 to 8 pounds. The U.S.'s largest baby in 2013 was from Gainesville and weighed 14 pounds 7.6 ounces. This makes Michael a big baby. You could even say one of the biggest.
"It wasn't until I saw him in the nursery next to all the other newborns that I realized, wow, he really is almost twice every baby's size," says dad Mike Forsythe.
According to Damaris Miranda, the family's obstetrician, he's the largest baby anyone in her practice has ever delivered.
So big that the baby could not fit in any of the hospital's newborn clothing.
"I had to leave the hospital just hours later to get the baby clothes," Mike says. "We had prepared with plenty of newborn clothes, but now those clothes are out of the question."
Michael was born, in other words, needing clothes normally fit for 0- to 3-month-olds.
He may take up the entire bassinet and eats every hour or two, but the real surprise is that Michael is 100 percent healthy and normal. Large newborns are at risk of being born with diabetes, but doctors performed numerous tests on the Forsythes' baby, and everything came back clear.
"It was just a miracle," Mike says. "We just had a huge baby!"
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