He was born two weeks early but baby Shawn Junior was in no way a premature baby. The newborn made a name for himself at the East Kootenay Regional Hospital (EKRH) as the largest baby delivered. Shawn Tyson Williams Burgoyne was born on Monday, May 15th weighing in at 13 pounds and nine and a half ounces.
“The staff were all excited, and Shawn Junior continues to draw attention from all the staff,” said nurse Darcy McInnes, the patient coordinator for obstetrics at the EKRH.
“Chatting with one of our long time obstetricians today, I discovered the biggest baby he has delivered here was 13lbs 6oz, and he has been here since 1979. A nurse who has been here for 35 years also said it was the biggest baby she has seen delivered at EKRH. She was also the nurse there for Shawn Junior’s delivery,” said McInnes.
Baby Shawn is Colleen Burgoyne’s second born. With a one-year-old son, she already knew what labour pains would be like. Having scheduled a c-section birth for May 18th she was already in Cranbrook when she began feeling contractions on May 15th.
“At first I just thought it was cramps. Because he was so big, I just thought he was moving around, I just thought it was hurting. But then I started thinking about it and I was like, ‘okay these are contractions’ but they weren’t as bad as how labour is it was just the beginning of the labour,” said Burgoyne.
Doctors moved up her c-section and she gave birth to the healthy baby boy on Monday, and so far both baby and mom are doing well.
“He’s pretty good we’re just trying to get his feeding on schedule but he has a pretty loud cry when he wants something,” said Burgoyne.
Throughout her pregnancy doctors were concerned about why she was so big, testing her for gestational diabetes which came back negative each time. Towards the end of her pregnancy, she was going in for regular tests and ultrasounds to make sure everything was okay.
“I had an ultrasound two weeks prior to the birth and the weight on there said it was 12 pounds but the doctors couldn’t believe it,” said Burgoyne.
Often the weight from ultrasounds is off so doctors told Burgoyne he was probably closer to 10 or 11 pounds. Due to his size, Burgoyne questioned whether or not the due date was correct.
“He was pretty big throughout the whole pregnancy, I was big, I was like, ‘okay are you sure you got the due date right’. I always kept questioning it to myself but he was just a big baby,” said Burgoyne.
Although, she never expected for him to come out as big as he did.
“The last month was the hardest. It was pretty hard, like I knew I was going to have a big baby but not this big. I could kinda tell he was going to be big. At the end there I was like, ‘oh my god’, just walking around I couldn’t walk that long,” said Burgoyne.
Shawn Junior currently wears zero to three-month-old clothes but Burgoyne is expecting him to grow quickly as her first born “grew like a weed.”
The family will return home to Fairmont Hot Springs within the next few days as they are being released from the hospital on May 18th or May 19th. For mom Colleen Burgoyne she said she’s looking forward to going home.
