Little micropremie Josie Duggar, who was born four and a half months premature last December, has gained enough weight and is stable enough to leave the hospital and go home with her large family in Arkansas. The Duggars will live temporarily in a rental home in Little Rock, near Josie’s hospital, until they feel that she’s improved enough to go home with them to Tonitown.
Josie is the nineteenth child in the prolific Duggar family, which stars in the weekly TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting. She was just 1 lb., 6 oz. at birth and now weighs 4 lbs. 9 oz. and can breathe without assistance. In a statement to People Magazine, mom Michelle Duggar, 43, made it clear that she would care for her premature baby by saying “I will be her main caregiver.” The Duggars have received criticism for the fact that they run their family with a “buddy system” in which an older child is assigned to care for a younger sibling once they stop nursing at six months old.
Today, Josie weighs 4 lbs. 9 oz., is breathing without oxygen, eating every three hours and stable enough to go home, says Arrington. It’s a bittersweet day for the staff. “I will miss being around the baby and the family,” Arrington says. “They are very nice people. But they’ve told me they will stay in touch and come by the nursery to let us see her.”
Michelle says the family’s emotional roller-coaster ride has “leveled out,” and that Josie’s disposition has been a joy in hard times. “She has a strong personality,” Michelle says. “She is a spunky little thing and will keep us all going.”
The littlest Duggars at home – Jackson, 5, Johanna, 4, Jennifer, 2, and Jordyn, 15 months – have never seen Josie in person and “are jumping up and down that they will finally get to meet their baby sister,” says Michelle. Of course, given Josie’s still-delicate state, “the little ones will have to be careful with slobbery kisses to prevent any colds and sniffles,” Michelle adds.
The family will remain in a rental home nearby in Little Rock indefinitely until they are ready to take Josie home to Tontitown, Ark. “I will be her main caregiver,” Michelle says, “and we’ll have a lot of helpers around to take turns feeding her and getting her to sleep.”
[From People]
Good luck to the Duggars and to little Josie, who is hopefully out of the woods and improving daily. I know that people have strong feelings about this huge family, and that’s understandable. The few times I’ve watched this show I’ve been blown out of the water by how calm and well run their household is. I know I get more stressed out caring for one kid than they do with more than a baker’s dozen. Whatever you think about them, their kids are well cared for and they don’t rely on public assistance.
Of course there’s still the question of whether they’ll continue to have children in spite of Michelle and Josie’s medical scare. They’ve said that they’ll continue to have children as long as God wants them to. It’s unclear to me whether they fully grasp the very active role they play in that situation.
Photos from TLC
that poor baby. as much as this family disgusts me I do hope she gains her strength and health.
and please stop with the ‘at least they dont rely on public assistance”. They certainly do. They get state paid health insurance for all their kids (which is more than most have right now)and they dont have to pay taxes on most of their income since they somehow have their property declared a church.
Just think how much money we would all have if we didnt have those two expenses right there. Id have 50% more income if I didnt have to pay those things too. they work the system to but in a more discreet way.
As usual, the know-it-all’s who know everything about the Duggars finances. *eyeroll*
I’m the same age as Michelle and I couldn’t fathom having babies at this point in my life. Say what you will but it takes something special to have the energy for all those kids. Just having my 6 month old granddaughter overnight exhausts me!! lol
Well, that’s some good news at last. Congrats to the Duggars; I am sure they are thrilled.
This must have been a real shock and challenge for them, after so many healthy children. It’s great news that Josie is out of the hospital, and I hope she continues to thrive and grow. She’s so tiny. Why do people have to hate on someone so incredibly helpless?
Great. Now they can get to work on having number 20. AWESOME! *evil side-eye*
This family makes me sick. And i’m not usually a judgmental person.
I am just surprised Michelle isn’t currently pregnant.
Hautie, maybe MD is pregnant and just waiting until after the first trimester. I expect to see an announcement on this site any day now!
The Duggars make their money the same way the Gosselin’s do, by parading their children on TV. Even a micro premie isn’t immune to being used on TV and in magazines to fill mommy and daddy’s bank account.
They’re fame-ho$s, no better than any of the other$ on t.v. pimping out their kid$.
Its a vagina not a clown car.
Them having state health insurance is pretty public knowledge-Jim Duggar was actually a US Senator for one term (I only wish I was kidding) and so they have free health insurance for life for their entire family from their home state.
L…that’s right. And that’s EXACTLY why he ran and got out after one term.
L:
That’s right. And that EXACTLY why he ran and served one term.
I’m not against this family my no means I just don’t understand why you’d want to continue having children not only at the age they are but after having a grandchild too!!!! Makes no sense to me!!!! I wonder if any of their kids will do the same thing!!!!!
I have mixed feelings about this family. I am glad that Josie is fine to go home, but they still have a long road ahead with her. Who knows if she will end up having other health problems along the way. God only knows. As for the health insurance..isn’t the government wonderful? If only us regular peeons would receive the care the federal government employees get, that would be amazing and very unrealistic.
Maybe this is a sign that she’ll stop. I come from a family of 15 kids and even my mom thinks they’re crazy. My youngest sibling was born fine but my mother had complications. She’s said that if that hadn’t happened she’d probably had more kids. I don’t think anyone who has a high number of kids thinks of the dynamics of the family structure. The older kids end up being back up parents and I can tell they still resent my parents and younger siblings for it. I’m the 2nd to last and in my 30s and my older siblings still treat me like a child, telling me what to do which in turn makes me resent them and try to avoid them.
@L: I think that’s sad. I sort of understand Presidents getting health care after being in office but I think Senators and Congress members shouldn’t get auto health care. They should fall in the same qualifications for people who get medicare and medicaid. Kinda makes you wonder what those who voted against the health care bill were thinking.
They can do what they want but I think it’s rather selfish of them to keep trying for children at this point. Their last child was born four and a half months premature. How can they seriously consider having more children? Any future attempts might end up with a child dying or incapacitated.
Plus, I don’t agree with their buddy system. That’s FUCKED up. Why? Because children are meant to be children not meant to be the parents. 2 parents, 18 children? Where is the one on one time? Parents raise children, not older siblings.
“Its a vagina not a clown car.”
I believe the line shoud be “Its a uterus, not a clown car.”
BTW, great family. Beautiful, well-behaved kids.
DAMN ! Look at the second picture of her in the chair : that’s a proof she is also wearing jeans, not only skirts
Ug. They say their entire reason for having so many children is that children are blessings.
Well, sure they are. But where is the logic that if they are blessings that means have as many as possible? It doesn’t follow.
People with two kids or one child are just as blessed.
And since this was a girl, they already passed that 80th day postpartum when they could stop being abstinent and start trying to conceive again. Look for an announcement any day now, despite the fact that they will now have a preemie in fragile health at home.
Fame whores. Whoring out their kids for a buck.
Can I report Cakes’ comment as abuse? Jaysus! If I hear/read “It’s a vagina not a clown car” one more time. It was mildly amusing the first couple times and now that phrase needs to die IMMEDIATELY.
/rant
On topic. I think the Duggars are cult- like and creepy but baby Josie being deemed healthy enough to go home gets a yay from me.
@I Choose Me: I agree! I laughed the first time I read it, but that was it. MOVE ON PEOPLE.
Back on topic, I think once you have your first grandkid, that’s a sign that you stop having any more babies of your own.
I really think Josie’s birth was a wake up call for Michelle. She isn’t young like she used to be and her body won’t be able to carry babies like it used to. The older she gets, the more likely there will be complications with each successive birth. She hasn’t gotten pregnant since this last baby’s birth so maybe it’s a sign?
As for the whole buddy system, I can tell you right now I would resent my mom so much if she did that to me growing up. I have three cousins who were each raised by a different nanny–all their mother really did was give birth to them. I can tell that to this day they deeply resent the way their mother raised them and they don’t get along with her. Handing off children to other children to raise is unfair and defeats the purpose of being a mother.
Feera, interesting comment. Thanks for the perspective!
I actually gasped when I saw how terrifyingly small that baby is. They just won’t stop until one baby doesn’t make it.
I heard the baby was premature because her vagina can’t really hold anything in anymore.
As long as TLC (Total Lack of Class network) keeps giving the Duggars, Gosselin’s, Various Midgets and Obese layabouts TV shows these people will never go away.
I wish there was a way to get TLC off my cable. Eery time I flip past it I wonder what horrid vision of “Familia Americana” I will be forced to endure.
I don’t think they are trying to have children exactly.
They are doing what a lot of happily married couples do… have sex!
They just don’t believe in birth control because it alters God’s plan or something like that…
They must do the opposite of natural family planning (NFP) or whatever its called. They probably figure out what days she’s most fertile and then have sex on those days. That’s the only explanation of how they have so many kids. I’m sure my parents didn’t use any kind of birth control (yuck on that thought, of my parents “doing it”), but they only had 3 kids.
It is none of anyone else’s business how many children these people have. Like all of you pro-abortion people like to say- “keep your morals out of my uterus”- Well, keep your opinions out of Michelle Duggar’s uterus. At least this woman can honestly say that she has never paid anyone to slaughter one of her own children. How many of you women who are putting this family down can say that?