Posted on 05/25/2004 9:06:38 PM PDT by projectile
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Michelle Duggar is all smiles after delivering her 15th child, but she may be ready for more, her family says. Mother and child were doing well, although Michelle, 37, was feeling some discomfort because the birth was her second by Caesarean section, said her mother-in-law, Mary Duggar. Shes a trouper. Shes just all smiles, Mary Duggar said. Jackson Levi Duggar was born at 10:52 a.m. Sunday, weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces and measuring 20 inches. She was wanting to do it naturally, Mary Duggar said. But the delivery was by C-section because one of Jacksons shoulders was presenting first. I call him Jumping Jack because he would go in a circle, she said. More on the way? The babys father, former state legislator Jim Bob Duggar, sounded a bit tired but happy after returning home Monday. He said his wife and new son were doing fine. He said he leaves the decision up to Michelle on whether to have more children. I have always left it up to Michelle because shes actually the one that carries them and does all the labor, he said. But we both love children. Even yesterday, she said she would like to have some more. Michelle probably will be in Washington Regional Medical Center for three or four days, said her mother-in-law, who is taking care of the 14 other children. Michelle, who home schools her children and is helping to build the familys new home in Tontitown from the ground up, started having her babies when she was 21, four years after she and Jim Bob married. Her 38-year-old husband is a real estate businessman. Their children include two sets of twins, and the parents have stuck to the letter J for their names. There is Joshua, 16; Jana and John-David, 14; Jill, 13; Jessa, 11; Jinger, 10; Joseph, 9; Josiah, 7; Joy-Anna, 6; Jeremiah and Jedidiah, 5; Jason, 4; James, 2; and Justin, 1. © 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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I say, "WAY TO GO!" to this family in Arkansas. But it's too little too late for the traditional WASPs. This one family is in a tiny minority, as far as size goes.
"THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THE FERTILE"
That's why, a hundred years from now, the biggest controversy of the day will be the threat of the five Mormon majority states and the two Muslim majority states to secede from the 43 Hispanic/Catholic states. Of course the Protestants will try to weigh in on the controversy with their own two cents worth. But since they constitute only 2% of the population (hence the two cents), and since the only place they are a majority of the local population is in Guam, everyone else will ignore them.
If they live in Tontitown the odds are pretty good that they are. It's an old Italian community with lots of good places to eat.
Michelle probably will be in Washington Regional Medical Center for three or four days, said her mother-in-law, who is taking care of the 14 other children.
The grandma is probably counting the hours until her daughter-in-law returns home. But seriously, that is a blessed family and it sounds like they're handling everything quite well.
Not only does she have them, she HOMESCHOOLS them.
Once you've spent time teaching the older ones, the younger ones start getting it by osmosis! LOL!
I read an article about this family the other day. The older kids help to teach the youngers ones to read and do their math, etc. It also makes for much more harmony between the kids; they learn to be friends with each other because they're not learning the attitudes of many school kids these days that say kids are 'supposed' to hate their parents and siblings.
You haven't seen this guy and believe me he his a Goof Ball! Under no circumstances would I vote for him.
I really don't care who Jim Bob is or isn't. He's a little too off base for me and comes across as a goof ball and he is unelectable for a state wide race.
Sorry, I call it as I see it.
Ponder the amount of waste in our society -- Spending $8,000 on a usable used car or $20,000 on a new, and fairly low-end, one.
Buying an older decent home for $125,000 vs buying a new one at $300,000 a savings that equates to two years of work for someone making $80,000.
I have no doubt that that family can give those kids a decent standard of living by which I mean food, clothes, shelter and education.
But, as long as he and the wife are caring for these kids themselves (without government assistance... discounting the fact that with that many exemptions, they probably don't owe much tax), then I don't care if they have 30.
I suppose I find it a little odd, but hey, we homeschool our one-and-only, and you'll find no shortage of folks who see that as odd AND dangerous.
I'll have to agree with you. Having 15 kids seems neat on the surface, however.......
A guy that goes by the name "Jim Bob" that has kept his wife constantly pregnant for 16 years is obviously WEIRD.
I'm happy about the children, but I'm not going to lie and say looking at the Mrs. she looks old for her time. I am guessing if she didn't wig out like the other lady in Texas? then she must be fine. I'm sure people are happy with christians having so much children BUT no one has ever done a study of women having very large families. My parents BOTH came from large families and I can't say either of my grandmothers were very happy.
Almost like the husband of that lady who drowned her kids.
According to the other article linked, they are Southern Baptists. The fact that the husband says he leaves it up to the wife to decide if they will have more children suggests to me that they aren't averse to using some kind of family planning, just prefer to have children... more power to 'em.
According to something I read recently, the record for a woman is 69 (lots of twins and triplets). For a man, the "documented" record is 888.
Well, obviously we can't know what role the number of children play in anyone's unhappiness in life. In our grandparents' day, though, women had a lot of children often due to lack of birth control methods. Very different from now, when the women with large families have them by choice. Health care also is a lot better now... I'm sure a lot of our grandmothers had undiagnosed/ untreated health problems related to childbearing as well. I think I read a statistic or article somewhere talking about the profound regret that the majority of women and men experienced when they didn't have children at all. Hard to generalize... but by all accounts this family seems pretty happy.
Seems like they're very happy and is best to err on the side of being positive.
I was waiting the read that she is a single mother living on welfare but was gratified to hear that she and her husband are supporting that family themselves. More power to them.
Nice to see someone other than Muslim immigrants having babies.
I agree. Many of my ancestors had this many children and more. I'm glad as I tend to be descended from the youngest!
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