Ashley and Greg Box welcomed a very big bundle of joy when their son Kasen Michael was born Monday. The newborn weighed in at an impressive 12 pounds, 8 ounces — and measured a full 2 feet tall.

(Photo: Ashley Box)

“I couldn’t believe it,” Ashley told KHOU. The Missouri couple wasn’t expecting Kasen until Jan. 18, and the mother said she didn’t think the baby, her second child, would be larger than 10 pounds. His delivery didn’t go as anticipated either.

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“We pushed and no progress,” said Ashley, who ended up having a cesarean section at Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar, Mo. And while Ashley acknowledges that her son is “huge,” she added that, “To me, he feels small.”

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(Photo: Ashley Box)

Perhaps it’s the perspective she’s learned from her older son, Blake, 2. The toddler was born weighing 2 pounds less than Kasen but is already wearing the clothes of a 4-year-old. When Blake met his “little” brother, dad Greg said the toddler kissed Kasen, told him that he loved him, and said, “‘Eat baby.’ It was hilarious.”

The Box brothers, Kasen and Blake (Photo: Ashley Box)



Kasen’s incredible size isn’t record-breaking, though, rare as it may be in Missouri, where KHOU reports that, according to the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services, only 1.4 percent of babies born in Missouri between 1990 and 2013 weighed more than 9.92 pounds. Guinness World Records identifies the heaviest surviving baby born to a healthy mother, Italy’s Carmelina Fedele in 1955, as weighing 22 pounds, 8 ounces. (In 1879, Anna Bates, an Ohioan with gigantism, welcomed a 23-pound, 12-ounce son, but he died 11 hours later.) In more recent news, a December baby born in Colorado weighed in at 13 pounds, 13 ounces — but 2 inches shorter than newborn Kasen at 22 inches long.

Still, proud father Greg has no doubt that his son will make headlines at some point. He boasted on Wednesday: “Look for him in the NFL.”

Story continues

(Top photo: Ashley Box)

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