{"id":311745,"date":"2026-03-04T00:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/311745\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T00:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:55:07","slug":"northland-mum-kari-muller-gives-birth-to-13lb-6oz-son-lewis-at-whangarei-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/311745\/","title":{"rendered":"Northland mum Kari Muller gives birth to 13lb 6oz son Lewis at Whang\u0101rei Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThen we had a scan at 37 weeks which kind of agreed that he was tracking large,\u201d Kari said.<\/p>\n

Lewis\u2019 predicted size barely fazed the second-time mum. <\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose in some ways I was thinking how am I going to do it but towards his due date I was feeling quite positive about the birth and I just thought it\u2019ll just be what it\u2019ll be, and you know, as long as everyone\u2019s happy and healthy,\u201d Kari said.<\/p>\n

Her outlook was spot-on as Lewis was born on his due date and his birth required no intervention such as a C-section or epidural.<\/p>\n

However, Kari said the couple were lucky to make it to the hospital in time.<\/p>\n

That morning she thought she was in labour. She called her husband William home about midday. <\/p>\n

However, the action \u201cjust petered off\u201d. Even a walk couldn\u2019t keep the momentum going, Kari thought.<\/p>\n

Convinced it was a false alarm, she took a nap.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen around 6pm it started ramping up again \u2013 quite quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

They phoned their midwife at 7.30pm, arrived at the hospital just after 8pm and at 8.29pm Lewis was born.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin 25 minutes of being there he was in our arms,\u201d Kari said. <\/p>\n

\"NewbornNewborn Lewis Muller tipped the scales at 13lb 6oz.<\/p>\n

Family and friends were surprised by how much Lewis weighed, with none knowing of parents who\u2019d had a 13lb 6oz baby. <\/p>\n

The midwife told the Mullers Lewis was her first 13lb delivery. <\/p>\n

Kari said Lewis, who had been 61cm long, had skipped newborn clothes and already fitted snuggly into size zero to 3 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very sleepy and chill,\u201d William said of his newborn son.<\/p>\n

\"KariKari Muller with husband William, son Walter (left) and new addition Lewis.<\/p>\n

The Muller boys seemed to take after their parents, as Kari weighed 10lb (4.54kg) at birth and William 11lb 6oz (5.13kg). <\/p>\n

On February 19, a Whanganui family welcomed their newborn son, who weighed about double the average birth weight<\/a> at 15lb 3oz (6.89kg).<\/p>\n

The birth of a 16lb (7.39kg) baby was reported by the NZ Herald in 2017<\/a> and is thought to be the New Zealand record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThen we had a scan at 37 weeks which kind of agreed that he was tracking large,\u201d Kari…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[169591,169589,169592,169593,169590,28824,1975,15316,31468,8414,1888,20733,2241,10749,169588,27494,52303,2721,111,43,139,1067,69,22639,10707,165,20110,61,698,5834,18216,1869,28028],"class_list":{"0":"post-311745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-11lb","9":"tag-13lb","10":"tag-513kg","11":"tag-608kg","12":"tag-6oz","13":"tag-arrived","14":"tag-at","15":"tag-birth","16":"tag-brother","17":"tag-couple","18":"tag-first","19":"tag-gives","20":"tag-hospital","21":"tag-impressive","22":"tag-kari","23":"tag-lewis","24":"tag-muller","25":"tag-mum","26":"tag-new-zealand","27":"tag-news","28":"tag-newzealand","29":"tag-northland","30":"tag-nz","31":"tag-son","32":"tag-sons","33":"tag-their","34":"tag-thought","35":"tag-to","36":"tag-until","37":"tag-weighing","38":"tag-weight","39":"tag-whangrei","40":"tag-younger"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}