“We were thinking, how much bigger would he be?”
The couple were assigned two obstetricians, one of whom helped deliver Niwha.
At their 36-week scan, Tokatūmoana measured 12lb.
Annie Karanga-Tims said they had agreed on a name if he weighed more than a stone.
“Toka means like stone or rock,” she said.
“And we said that if the baby was over 14 pounds, which is one stone, we’ll call him Toka, for a joke, but it kind of stuck.”
Annie Karanga-Tims said she was relieved to have Tokatūmoana delivered.
“He was really heavy,” she said.
“I think the last week I was pretty much ready to just get him out.”
When Niwha was born, none of the baby clothes they had ready fitted, but this time they were prepared with larger-sized baby clothes and nappies.
Niwha required size 3 nappies, typically worn by a 6-month-old.
They are now home from the hospital and settling in with their new family member.
Annie said Niwha has continued to be larger than usual for his age.
“People always ask us how old he is and we’re like, ‘Oh, he’s 1, but he looks 3,’” she said.
“But I think to us as the parents and the family that are always around them, that we can’t tell the difference really.”
In 2017 the Herald reported the birth of a 16lb (7.39kg) baby that was thought to be the New Zealand record birth.
It was more than double the 3.46kg average birthweight of a newborn New Zealand baby, according to Ministry of Health statistics then.
Erin Smith is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.
