Whoa, baby! 19-pound boy is named Akbar - Parenting & Family -
Closed captioning of: Enormous baby is instant celebrity
back now at 7:47. the birth of a new baby is always a cause for celebration but one family has an especially big reason to smile. nbc nbc's
ian williams
has their story.
reporter: this has become one of the most famous houses in indonesia. home from the hospital and seemingly unphased by all the attention. his size came as a complete shock.
i thought i was having twins. i never expected a baby this big. i am so happy and proud.
reporter: but it wasn'test. the nearest hospital was more than an hour away. when the baby was born on
september 21st
, he weighed in at just over 19 pounds, and instant celebrity. at more than two feet long, he dwarfed the other new arrivals. back home, and with a voracious appetite, he's put on another half-pound, going through 12 bottles a day. the mother covered in her traditional soothing cream isn't yet strong enough to lift her son. it is her husband who's doing the heavy lifting. though more than happy for a little assistance. "he was only sleeping, drinking, sleeping." his brother and sister keep vigil beside him. had he still wear a slight look of surprise as the baby's already in the clothes of a 2-year-old. this is a desperately poor village with few local medical facilities which is why the baby's size was never spotted. doctors here believed the mother had
gestational diabetes
and the baby received too much glucose in the womb. but the husband thinks it's because he's a
. at 6'3", he's tall by local standards. and here they're all assuming that the baby will be taller still. the doctor who delivered the baby made a
house call
and pronounced him fit and well.
yes, he is very healthy.
reporter: he said he was amazing and the most difficult delivery he's ever done.
i was standing on chair.
standing on chair.
standing on chair.
he warned the baby will need close monitoring because larger babies require close attention. the sort of monitoring doctors recommend may be beyond the means of the baby's family or village. local officials are promising help. but now though, he and his proud parents are reveling in all the attention. for "today,"
ian williams
, in sumatra, indonesia.
wow, he looks healthy though.
the mother, we all had the question of what was the mud or whatever? the traditional soothing cream. you're going to need a lot of soothing cream after having a 19-pound baby.
my son's over a year old and he's just a couple pound more than that.
how big a baby were you guys?
i was only about 5 pounds.
how big you are when you're born doesn't really indicate how big you will be as an adult.
i hope he can get the
medical care
he's going to need over the coming months and years.
coming up next, we've got
maria shriver
in the house on why it is now called "a woman's nation."
and much more ahead on a monday morning. but first
TODAY staff and wire
Akbar Risuddin — or "the Great" in Arabic — is a bouncing baby boy who could break a knee.
Ani, his mother from Jakarta, Indonesia, delivered the 19.2-pound, 2-foot-long child on Monday via Caesarean section.
His arrival, chronicled on TODAY Thursday, was marked by a cry that sounded more like a roar and an appetite of epic proportions.
Akbar's weight record for a newborn in Indonesia, although a bit short of the world record of 23 pounds set in 1879, was likely caused by his mother having gestational diabetes. And even though mom Ani was saved the grueling task of pushing the child out herself, the surgery to bring him into the world was still touch and go.
“This heavy baby made the surgery really tough, especially the process of taking him out of his mum’s womb,” Dr. Binsar Sitanggang told Agence France-Presse. “His legs were so big.”
Big may be an understatement. The child was born at a birth weight that nears that of a year-old toddler, and in a picture taken of the baby alongside a normal birth-weight newborn, he seemed triple the size.
Doctors explained Ani’s diabetes likely caused the child to receive too much glucose in the womb, accounting for his massive size upon delivery — but so far, so good, in terms of the newborn’s health.
“I'm very happy that my baby and his mother are in good health,” father Muhammad Hasanuddin said Friday. “I hope I can afford to feed the baby enough, because he needs more milk than other babies.”
Big newborns seem to be a pattern for the Risuddin family. Akbar, who is the third child of Hasanuddin, 50, and Ani, 41, has two “little” brothers who weighed 11.6 pounds and 9.9 pounds at birth.
Still, the wide-mouthed male proved to be a handful and then some upon his first few hours in the world. “He’s got a strong appetite, it’s almost nonstop feeding,” Sitanggang told the news agency.
“This baby
the way he’s crying is not like a usual baby. It’s really loud.”
The TODAY hosts dropped a collective jaw in eyeing a picture of the newborn — and then the jokes began. Al Roker commented on the big baby lying next to the swaddled, normal-size newborn, saying, “He looked [over] and said, ‘Oooh, a burrito! In my belly!’ ”
But Ann Curry said the outsize child may be a special gift to his mother, who has two older children. She commented that Ani has “more to love” with her newborn.
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Cbs Photo ArchiveI will pretty much give wall-to-wall coverage to Michael Fassbender and Benedict Cumberbatch whenever we have new photos of those lovely men, but for the most part, I haven’t really fallen for Tom Hiddleston, despite many of you trying to get me interested in him.
The way I feel about Tom – if I’m being completely honest – is that my heart is already owned by two ginger boys, Fassy and Prince Harry.
Do I have room, do I have the time, do I have the inclination, do I have the need to fall for Tom Hiddleston?
I don’t know.
I’ve come across various videos and interviews from Tom which made me go, “Huh, he IS cute.”
But I’ve yet to have that crush-defining moment where I go, “YES, my new obsession!”
Anyway, these are some new photos of Tom in Cologne, Germany, meeting with some German Hiddlestoners.
From what I’ve heard and seen, Tom is really sweet to his fans.
Well, he just seems like a sweetheart in general.
Fassbender is a boy’s boy, happy that he’s gotten a higher profile, but he still treats a lot of his “fame” with some skepticism and “coolness”.
Whereas Tom is just incredibly earnest and… I don’t know, there’s something winningly needy and nerdy about him.
I’m not saying that in a bad way – he just seems to be the Dorky Boy Scout of the Young, Hot British Actors.
And much like my beloved Cumberbatch, Hiddleston’s hotness definitely improves when you see him in motion, and you can hear his voice.
He also does great impressions – his Owen Wilson is AMAZING.
Cute, right?
Sigh… maybe I do have room in my heart to love him.
Dear Hiddlestoners: how much do you want to be a pen cap right now?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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YES. A blue-eyed (albeit a little thin-looking in the pics) Brit? Yes, yes, yes. I don’t usually like gingers, either. I know I’m weird for being attracted to Loki.
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