Mom Who Gives Birth to 15 Lb. Baby Says She Felt Like She Was 'Hit by Two Tractor-Trailers'

A mom from Upstate New York and her newborn daughter may have set the record for the largest baby born in the state, but she’s just happy to have her child.

Joy Buckley, from Corning, welcomed her third child, a daughter named Harper, on March 12. At 15 lbs., 5 oz. and 23.2 inches, the baby girl set a record as the largest baby born at Arnot Odgen Medical Center, and officials are checking the state records to see if she’s the biggest baby born in the state of New York.

For Buckley, baby Harper is another miracle after seven years of infertility, when she was told that she and her husband, Norman, had a less than 15 percent chance of becoming pregnant.

“I’ve been wanting to be for years and I haven’t been able to,” Buckley told WETM.

The couple decided to adopt a daughter, and soon after she became pregnant. Their second child, a boy, weighed 11 lbs. when he was born. Two years later, Buckley learned that she was pregnant again.

“The thing I’ve always wanted to do in my life is being a mom, and finding out the first time I was overjoyed, and the second time I was like, I’m going to be a mom to three kids now,” she said. “It was something I’ve always wanted to do.”

Delivering a 15 lb. baby isn’t easy, though, and Buckley said that the birth — which required three doctors, a C-section and a medical vacuum to pull Harper out — was arduous.

“I felt like I was hit by two tractor-trailers,” she told the New York Post. “It was pretty violent. She got stuck under my ribcage.”

Harper had to go to the NICU to check her sugar and oxygen levels, and is still there now, though doctors expect to release her soon.

“It’s definitely hard, but I know that she won’t be here forever,” Buckley told WETM. “She’ll be coming home soon. She’s in good hands.”

And she said that Harper is doing well in the NICU.

“We are so in awe of her,” Buckley told the Post. “We’ve been able to hold her. She’s got a pretty happy demeanor.”

The mom of three is healing up too.

“I’m up moving around, and I can walk now. I’m so relieved to be done feeling that [physical] pressure,” she said.

Buckley also wants other hopeful parents to keep trying if they’re struggling with infertility.

“Don’t give up because it’s right there,” she told WETM. “It’s definitely right there, because my kids are total proof of that.”