‘What are you feeding them?’ is the question mum Brittany Opetaia-Halls constantly has to answer when strangers meet her children.
Brittany, 29, from Brisbane, Australia has two girls, Malayisa-Maree, 4 – who wears clothes made to fit eight-year-olds – and Milana-Mae who, at six months old, is in the 99th percentile.
When Malayisa-Maree was born via C-section in August 2020, she weighed 9lbs 4oz.
That’s more than 2lbs more than the average weight for a full-term baby girl, which is 7lb 2oz.
This June, her little sister came into the word at a similar weight of 9lbs 2oz.
Now, Milana-Mae tips the scales at 22lbs 9oz – more than 5lbs heavier than the average and heavier than 99% of other tots of the same age and sex.
Mum Brittany said she knew her girls would be big, based on the size of her bump and the fact her husband, Rajan, is 6ft 2in.
‘I was showing pretty quickly with both of them,’ she said. ‘My husband is very tall so in my head, I went “oh no!”.’
After 20 weeks of pregnancy with Malayisa-Maree, Brittany’s bump was already measuring higher than average for that stage, and by the time she was born, Malayisa-Maree had hit the 99th percentile.
Looking back on her first time giving birth, Brittany recalled: ‘I decided to have a caesarian and when I had her she got stuck coming out of the incision with her shoulder.
‘When she did come out they rushed her off as I was losing a lot of blood.
‘She ended up in NICU for three days and after the second day, I was able to see and hold her.
‘I felt horrible that my huge baby was in this room of premature babies.’
With Milana-Mae, Brittany wanted to have a natural birth, even though she was hitting the 88th percentile during the pregnancy.
‘I went to 41+1 weeks with her and I was meant to be induced…but luckily I went into labour without being induced and I really wanted to deliver her naturally,’ she said.
Second time around, the mum was in labour for 24 hours and pushed for a gruelling 45 minutes, but claims it was all worth it.
‘I think I was just in the moment of being glad I got to do it though,’ Brittany said.
The girls both continued to grow rapidly, meaning they had to wear clothes well above their age range.
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‘It felt like I’d be rotating clothes every few months,’ said Brittany. ‘Something would fit one week and not the next.’
Thankfully, it’s slowed down slightly now — and Milana-Mae can wear her big sister’s hand-me-downs.
But it looks like she might end up being the bigger sister after all, with mum Brittany adding: ‘It does feel like I’m rotating her [clothes] a lot quicker than Malayisa.’
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