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By Annie Bresee

The name “Big Juicy” is earned, not given. James Rounds was born at Wellstar West Georgia Medical Center in LaGrange on Wednesday, weighing in at 12.9 pounds.

Members of the Wellstar medical staff, including Kathy Hammock, the longtime Director of Women’s Services at the hospital, told the parents James was the largest baby they could remember being born there. Wellstar was unable to confirm if James was a record-holder for largest baby born. However, James has still become a minor celebrity at the hospital.

When he was born, the nurses took bets on how much he would weigh, shouting out numbers like 9 or 10 pounds. Anthony recalled laughing at their surprise after laying James on the scale and seeing 12.9 lbs pop-up.

The reaction from the family echoed the nurses, with James quickly, and lovingly, getting the nickname “Big Juicy.” Jessica and Anthony are in good spirits about their record-breaking baby and his juicy nickname.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the average weight of a full-term newborn baby boy is seven pounds and seven ounces. Since 2010, the largest baby on record anywhere weighed 14 pounds and eight ounces.

James is doing great, as are his parents, Anthony and Jessica. He was given the middle name Anthony after his father. His siblings, Jessica said, weighed a respectful 8 and 10 pounds when born, but James took the literal heavyweight championship.

His older siblings were very excited to meet the family’s new addition and are settling into their roles well, said the happy parents.

Jessica is a registered nurse at Wellstar West Georgia Medical Center where James was born. Now being on the other side as a patient, the mom praised the hospital’s staff.   

“The care has been exceptional for me and baby,” Jessica said.

“I knew he was probably going to be big because, at 35 weeks, he was already measuring like nine pounds. So we didn’t buy any newborn clothes,” Jessica said. “We didn’t know boy or girl until he came out so we bought gender-neutral clothing. So we had to take some of the zero to three-month clothes back and get three to six months clothes.”

Because this is the couple’s third child, the Rounds prepared by buying baby clothes ahead of time. However, they did not foresee having to have Anthony’s mother run to the mall to exchange clothes for a size up.

“My mom had to run to the mall and started buying clothes and then came back and had to return some of those clothes,” Anthony said.

The parents are happy James is healthy; even better, there are almost 13 pounds of him to love.