Many women think that deciding to have a baby is the easy step in the process towards motherhood.
All veteran moms know this is not the case, especially if you have one of the many complications women are subject to that make it difficult to conceive.
One woman had a tumultuous journey to getting pregnant and then found that she had more in store for her than she could have ever imagined.
When Joy Buckley, 31, and her husband Norman decided they wanted to try and grow their family, they soon found out that it was more difficult than they had expected.
Going to the doctors, they were shocked to hear that they only had a 15% chance of getting pregnant.
The reason? Buckley had polycystic ovary syndrome, better known as PCOS.
As Mommy Underground has previously reported, PCOS makes it incredibly difficult to conceive, because it causes “obesity, polycystic ovaries (multiple ovarian cysts), elevated levels of androgens, and absent or irregular menstrual cycles.”
This hinders the regular release of eggs. On top of this condition, Buckley was dealing with type 2 diabetes.
It is easy to get resentful of other families you see having children effortlessly when you are trying so hard to have a little bundle of joy yourself.
Today reports on Buckley reflecting on those tough moments:
“I still had some resentment like ‘so and so’s pregnant, they have six kids already, why are they pregnant again? I’ve wanted to for years and I haven’t been able to. The thing I’ve always wanted to do in my life was to be a mom.”
After some time of yearning for a bigger family, the Buckley’s made the decision to adopt, thus their first daughter, Haven, came into their life.
Shortly after the adoption, Buckley received the news she never thought she would hear, that she was pregnant.
In 2016, their son Chase was born to them at a whopping 11 pounds, and they were beyond excited to now have two children in the fold.
Life as a mother was all Buckley ever wanted, so now she was able to live out her dreams.
Content with her adorable two children, and knowing that she was already beating the odds with the birth of Chase, Buckley did not know if she could press her luck hoping for more.
Amazingly, Joy and Norman were told they were going to have another baby.
They had two biological children after the doctors told them they only had a 15% chance of conceiving!
The Buckleys were used to big babies, since Chase was well over the average infant weight of 5 pounds, 8 ounces and 8 pounds, 13ounces, as Kids Health reports.
However, they had no idea that their youngest daughter, Harper, was going to be as big as she was.
On March 12, Joy Buckley gave birth to a healthy 15 pound, 5 ounce baby girl, breaking the record for biggest birth weight at the Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira, New York.
That is more than the average weight of twin babies together!
Today reported:
“Joy Buckley, 31, had a feeling her child was going to be bigger than average, but even she was stunned when she gave birth on March 12 to her daughter Harper, who weighed 15 pounds, 5 ounces and took two doctors to deliver.”
Even Buckley was stunned at the size of her new baby girl, who was born the average size of a 3 to 6-month-old.
“I knew she was gonna be big, but I didn’t anticipate no 15-pound baby,” the surprised mother told NBC affiliate WETM.
Say goodbye to all those cute, tiny newborn outfits, because Harper is going to need to go straight into the next size up.
Giving birth is an exhausting task for a typical birth, it is hard to imagine the effort it would take to get the 23 ½ inch baby out.
Buckley shares a similar sentiment to the Washington Post after the birth was over:
“I felt like I had been hit by two tractor-trailers simultaneously.”
Baby Harper has to spend some time at the hospital having her glucose monitored, but should be able to come home soon.
A 15 pound, 5 ounce baby seems so large you wouldn’t think there could be much bigger, but that is not the heaviest baby reported.
The Guinness World record for heaviest baby belongs to a baby boy in Italy weighing in at 22 pounds, 8 ounces!
For all of us mothers out there, that seems unimaginable, but then again mothers are capable of great feats.
If you are struggling with PCOS, and are having trouble conceiving, just know that it is not impossible and that people defy the odds all the time- you could be next!
Please let us know in the comments section if you have been having trouble conceiving with PCOS, or if you have beat the fertility odds stacked against you.