NEWBORN baby Zayne Ives is a whopper, that’s for sure.

Tipping the scales at a hefty 11lb 6oz, he’s believed to be the heaviest natural birth recorded at Colchester General Hospital.

His mum, Paula, and dad, Gary, knew Zayne would be a big ’un when he showed up the size of a 41-week baby on her 36-week scan.

He was so big, Mrs Ives, 38, had to spend the last three months of her pregnancy in a wheelchair and even changed her screen name on a social networking website to Paula “belly-like-a-bowling-ball” Ives. During her four-hour labour, Mrs Ives, a former pupil at the Ramsey College, Halstead, refused all offers of pain relief because she has a phobia of being sick.

Instead, she sang Christmas carols in an effort to take her mind off the pain.

For all that, the birth went smoothly – apart from a moment when Zayne’s shoulders got stuck – and he was successfully delivered on September 15.

Mrs Ives, of Manors Green, Halstead, said: “I remember the midwives saying ‘oh my, God, that’s huge!’ He’s definitely a whopper.

“During the pregnancy, I had cravings for kippers and beetroot, but I don’t think that would made a huge amount of difference.”

Colchester General Hospital has something of a track record for plus-sized births.

Colchester couple Brian and Carly Licence’s daughter, Sophie, born in 2007, weighed 12lb 9oz, but she was born by Caesarean section.

A spokesman for the hospital said: “Zayne probably is our heaviest baby since Sophie.”