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The first granddaughter from the infamous 20-strong Duggar family made her premiere on the Today Show Monday morning. Little Mackenzie Duggar is the daughter of the oldest Duggar child, Joshua James, 21, and his new wife Anna Renée Duggar, also 21. The Today Show had some clips from the Duggar’s reality show on TLC, “18 Kids and Counting,” and it looks like a censored version of Anna’s well-attended labor and birth will be aired on their show. Unnaturally perky mom Michelle Duggar, who is currently pregnant with her 19th child, explained to Meredith Vieira that she made it to Texas from Arkansas with one of her oldest daughters Jill, 18, about 20 minutes before the birth of her grandchild. I don’t know about you, but there is no way I would have let a bunch of family members, not to mention a camera crew, in the birthing room with me. That was reserved for just the professionals and my husband, but to each their own. Anna had a natural home birth. Michelle said she did a “wonderful job” and she should know. New dad Josh, who was there to catch the baby as she was born, called the experience “awesome” several times.
Josh and Anna will continue the tradition of naming all their children with the same first letter (all the Duggar children have names that start with “J”) and joked to Meredith that they would name one of their babies after her.
Josh and Anna revealed a few months ago that they’re not hoping for a huge family and would be happy with just a few children. It still sounds like they’re leaving it up to chance, though. “We’d be happy with two or three; I think children are a blessing, though,” he said. “So we’re just thankful for the one that God has given us, and we’ll take ’em one at a time.” Anna comes from a family with seven siblings, which is still quite large but considerably smaller than Josh’s family.
Say what you will about the Duggars, they all seem incredibly happy and well adjusted. I want to say that I sense some competition between Michelle and Anna, but maybe that’s the pessimist in me coming out. There’s no way Anna can ever compete with her mother in law. No one will ever be as super nice or as fertile as Michelle Duggar. Is it wrong of me to hope for some family conflict?
I think those two will be just practicing the rhythm method as opposed to Michelle and Jim Bob who probably do it a few times a week without restraint.
This is called a LITTER!
I’ll suggest something called CONDOM or are they CATHOLICS?!
They’re not Catholic, but they’re fundamentalist Christian. Part of their belief system is “quiverful” in that they’ll accept any/all children sent by God. It’s not for me, but it seems to work for them.
uhm, they’re not Catholics but it is against their religion to use birth control.
I only recently learned that M & JB have an older daughter who isn’t involved in their lives much at all. Sad. Yes, the kids seem well-behaved and adjusted but they still creep me out. And there is NO WAY I’d want my birth taped and viewed for the whole world to see. Those long to the floor skirts are kind of useless if you decide to let your first child’s birth be broadcast far and wide IMO. The Duggars creep me out.
This brings to mind a quip from my grandmother, who had 13 children. She said she never felt better in her life than when she was pregnant. I said, “Grandma, you’ve been pregnant practically your entire adult life until menopause.” She said she guessed she never thought of it that way. I wonder if Michelle tried going for a couple years without being pregnant if she’d think oops – what the hell was I thinking?
UGH! They are too repulsive to congratulate them.
aww, que chula! she’s so pretty!
( and Enonymous,shame on you! How can you hate on a beautiful infant?!?)
Gee, if this were anyone else, everyone would be saying how lovely this is and congrats (ie:Heidi Klume), but because it is the Duggars, all the hate has to come out.
What is it to anyone what the newlyweds do? They have the right to have children if they want. Please do not cite the worlds over population and adoption as reasons why they shouldn’t have children.
Big family, small family, as long as they are taken care of, and not paid for by us, why should it matter?
Please do not come back with the fact that they get Gov. assistance, because THEY DON’T.
why is this news?
Firestarter, FWIW, I don’t want to see ANYONE give birth. If my daughter wants me present if/when she has a baby, I’ll be there for her but that’s something that shouldn’t be shared, IMO, with the entire world.
Shelly- HUH????? When was I advocating people watching others giving birth?
These hillbillies are worse then bunnies. and bunnies are the worst.
“I only recently learned that M & JB have an older daughter who isn’t involved in their lives much at all”
I’m curious on where you found this out from, I would think they would still want everyone to know about her, that would make 20 kids! The more kids, the more money.
i am tired of congratulating people for having litters of children.
I’m pretty sure Josh is the oldest Duggar child, and that Jana is the oldest girl. Who is the older girl mentioned previously?
When was I advocating people watching others giving birth?
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I didn’t mean it offensively. I was comparing congratulating the Duggars to your comment about Heidi Klum and no hate spewing if it was her and her new baby in this article – that’s all.
And I could have sworn I’ve read that the Duggars have a daughter that’s older than Josh but because she doesn’t partake in their current lifestyle, she’s excluded. I guess that’s what I get for believing everything in a rag mag! LOL Maybe it’s the oldest Duggar *daughter*. I just googled it and found that it’s the oldest daughter. I have wayyyy tooo much time on my hands obviously.
Well this isn’t a litter, it is one child/grandchild. When it gets to be 4,5,10, then start complaining.
Shelly, I think you were thinking of a different family who was also shown on TLC (different show) which did have an older daughter that they excluded from their lives.
The Duggars don’t have any children older than Josh–they’ve shown several photos from the time they were married to now and Josh is always the oldest one…and in his baby pictures he is the only one.
So unless they miscommunicated a toddler (not old enough to have kids that much older than Josh) then that is just not true.
I am just curious, what if one of the children one day decided that they did not want that life style and moved out. Would the Duggars be accepting of this?
Get used to all those people, Mackenzie. You’ll be popping out 20 kids before you know it!
firestarter: the duggars have 18 children… i call that a litter. the grandchild wouldn’t be news if we weren’t congratulating the duggars on having 18 kids to begin with, so yeah – i’m complaining.