It’s easy to forget about the other Duggar kids/adults in the wake of Jessa Duggar-Seewald’s harlotry. But Jessa’s brother Josh has been married to his wife Anna for six years. Josh and Anna were the one to give Jim-Bob and Michelle their first grandchild, back in October 2009, 13 months after Josh and Anna’s wedding. Since the birth of their first child, Mackynzie, Josh and Anna have added two more kids to their family: son Michael James in June 2011 and Marcus Anthony in June 2013. And now Anna is expecting their fourth!
Keep counting! The eldest son of the Duggar family, Josh Duggar, is going to be a father once more. Josh’s wife Anna Duggar took to Twitter on Tuesday evening, Dec. 2, to announce that she is pregnant with her fourth child.
“We are so excited to announce… we’re pregnant! #4andCounting #BlessingfromTheLord @joshduggar #19Kids,” she wrote.
Josh and Anna, both 26, married in September 2008 and quickly got to work on mirroring the massive brood led by Josh’s famously conservative parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. While Josh and his 18 siblings all have names that begin with the letter “J,” he branched out slightly, using the letter “M” for his own growing family.
The happy couple welcomed their first child, daughter Mackynzie Renée, in October 2009, going on to introduce sons Michael James in June 2011 and Marcus Anthony in June 2013. Anna and Josh have yet to announce whether their latest addition will be a Melissa or Mark.
The religious pair also teased the exciting news in a clip from TLC.
“This time of the year, there’s so many things we’re thankful for,” Josh says in the video, surrounded by his pregnant wife and three children. “From my sisters getting proposed to and married, to all the fans who are watching at home.”
Anna then chimed in, spilling, “One of the things we’re really thankful for this season, is that we’re expecting!” She added to TLC that she is nine weeks pregnant, a few months behind her sister-in-law Jill Duggar, who announced her own pregnancy news this past August.
“I’m having a lot of morning sickness so it is difficult, but it’s good because I know good things are happening,” Anna continued. “After Ben and Jessa’s wedding, we were still visiting with the family in Arkansas, and that was really exciting to get to share with the family the exciting news.”
If you’re anything like me, you were staring at those dates and doing the math in your head. Four pregnancies in six years isn’t totally bonkers, you know. I’m actually a little bit surprised by the gaps in pregnancies… I mean, Josh and Anna waited more than a year before conceiving Marcus? And then another 16-month pause between Marcus and this pregnancy. Wow. Back when Josh and Anna were working on their second kid, Josh spoke to E! News about their “family planning.” Or should I say, he talked around their family planning, because I’m still not sure if he thinks The Pill is the work of the devil or if he thinks it’s a good method for planning out one’s family in a modern world where having babies is really expensive. Maybe it’s one of those “don’t ask, don’t tell” situations with Anna and Josh. He gets to be super-conservative and against all forms of birth control and she hides her birth control pills because she doesn’t want to be pregnant every year, back-to-back.
Photos courtesy of Josh’s Instagram.
Kudos to anyone that can have more than one. So much stress…so much responsibility, especially if they are so close in age. If I ever have kids, I think one will be enough for me. Everyone is different I guess.
Lol i have one and when nosy people ask ‘when are you having more?’ I’m like look this is the first and last born.
SAME HERE!
People never stop asking though. And telling me that my daughter needs a sibling. She’s fine without one, really
Also, there are ways of natural family planning and breastfeeding may have delayed her period.
I hope she’s secretly using birth control though…I hate the idea of anyone having more kids than they want or can handle because of the pressure of thinking that God wants you to have that many.
We are exactly the same. I have one that is almost 3 and we are done.
My kid is living in like a fairy tale of being the only child. No one needs a sibling. She would just be jealous of it anyways.
Breastfeeding does NOT stop procreation.
I have 3 and it was pure hell carrying 2 within the span of 3 years, I don’t know what this shit is doing to this womans uterus! *SMH*
I, too, thought one would be quite enough for me. Then I found I was pregnant with twins…!
Oh my !
Mine are teenagers now- believe it or not, you’ll get through it & you’ll do great! The nighttime feedings are the hardest, not gonna lie about that. I hope you have good sleepers! Enjoy your babies; they grow so fast (sniff,sniff). Congrats from one multiples mom to another.
me too….had one, now im expecting twins….LOL burn on me
Oh sorry – didn’t mean to imply I’m CURRENTLY pregnant with twins! Mine are 4 years old now and recently started school – and yes they have grown so fast already! But hi AntiSocialButterfly and jjj – Multiples Mothers United!!
I wonder what happens if any of the wives or daughters cannot have multiple kids. For me, any more that my 2 will kill me. I have escalating preterm labor and preeclampsia, and PIH, so I couldn’t have more. I guess id be de-duggared. 🙂
I also had one….then unexpected twins….now I’m pregnant with #4 and hoping #5 isn’t in there, too! I’ve always wanted a bunch of kids, though. I think I watched the Sound of Music too many times as a child.
Russian Blue,
I could be mistaken, but Anna’s brother Daniel and his wife Candice were having trouble conceiving so they adopted and they were shunned from the family – the reasoning being that if God wanted them to have children, they would have gotten pregnant
My sister has four, hardly complains. I have one and I feel like the world is constantly ending.
I think one seems harder than a few. Everyone I know that has just one seems to spend their entire day entertaining them, whereas my three entertain each other and I can have a little space during the day.
I completely agree–some things (not all) are easier when you have a bunch of them. Primarily, it is easier because you are not constantly entertaining the child: they entertain each other. But it is crazy-tough on your body to have four kids in six years. That was pretty much my schedule and it ruined my health for a while.
I grew up around a lot of Catholic families, and some of my friends were from families of 8 or 9 children. I was totally jealous of them growing up, but as an adult the idea of gestating and raising that many is terrifying. The kids were generally the loveliest kids in town though. There is something to be said for being raised in an environment where you have to chip in a little more, especially in a wealthier area where I was from, where there is a lot of entitlement and hyper focus on success.
I am an “only,” not by Mum’s choice. I always wanted 4 kids. (I also grew up around a lot of Catholics. )
Until I had one. Then I was a “1 and done” kinda gal. The pressure I got from EVERYONE (except Mum) to “provide a sibling” was insane. Excuse me, random person on the street, but I don’t recall asking for your opinion.
Failed “method planning” led to number 2, which led to the inevitable “Don’t you want a girl now?” No. No I did not. (I already had the stuff for a boy, and he was an awesome kid.)
Divorce and re-marriage led to number 3 (his from his previous marriage) and birth control failure led to number 4 (20 years after my first – go figure!).
So I got my 4, but in a roundabout, unplanned miracle kinda way. Sometimes life’s funny that way.
Trying to think of ‘M’ names
Madeline
Mary
Molly
Michelle (like Grandma Duggar)
Matthew
Martin
Maxwell
Morgan
I wonder what happens when the older Duggar siblings have taken all the good first letters, though. Will little Josie double up on the “M” names and risk overlapping with other Duggar cousins, or will she try to do the best she can to come up with 20 names that start with “Z”?
Maria
Mia
madison
megan
Mercy
Margaret
molly
Monica
marissa
marnie
Miriam
meredith
Melody
matilda
Marilyn
we have created a Duggar length army of names (mine are all girls…).
I would never promote having twenty children, or the use of the same letter for every child. It’s so…. culty.
All these ‘M’ names and no one is saying mine! 🙁
Awwww. What is your M name?
I’m sure it is the best! 😉 Too good to be a DuggarArmy kid.
Hi Melanie. (Am I right?)
He’s only 26? He looks like a middle aged car salesman.
Co-sign. Dude isn’t aging well. At. All.
bwahahaha..neither of them are.
They’ve both put on a lot of weight too.
LMAO!
It’s funny… the duggar boys all look busted, but the girls are pretty gorgeous overall.
I think he was a car salesman before he got this gig in DC. Btw, I’m quite sure he hasn’t gone to college, but he landed a lobbying job through some family connection to … someone help me here. Was it Rick Santorum? ??
He’s a lobbyist for the Family Research Council – a group that is strongly opposed to LGBT rights, abortion rights and the like. They’ve been declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
He used to be a car salesman. He’s a pig like his father. I watched an episode when her sister and brother in law were at their home for dinner. She was sitting in and her a hole husband Josh was sitting out. Every time she tried to serve someone or do something she had to slink her way out of her chair behind Joshie. Finally and seriously she crawled under the table to get out and NEVER ONCE did it occur to him to move his fat butt. Yet still she looks adoringly at him just as Michelle does Jim Bob. Weak men and weaker submissive women.
OMG! Spot on description!
Why does the wife look like his sister?
OH MY GOSH I NEVER NOTICED CANNOT UNSEE!!!! SHE WOULD FIT RIGHT IN WITH HIS SISTERS!!!!!!!!!! Maybe they’re cousins?!?!
I was wondering that too. Anna strongly resembles his gorgeous sisters. Actually, all the women in their cult look similar, now that I think about it. I’ve caught glimpses of their show a few years back, where they gathered with all the other super-size families and I can’t remember seeing anyone with black or super blond hair. How do they all turn out the same light brown locks?
He looks seriously creepy, not to mention sweaty and clammy.
Agree, creepy, fat and sweaty. He doesn’t miss a meal and he better hope the TLC show doesn’t end or be cancelled because it’s not going to be fun raising 20 kids on a used car salesman salary.
26 year old milk
i wanna see his birth certificate
If she has a regular cycle, it can be easy to time sex around ovulation. It changes at around 30, so I’ve read (and noticed).
Yea but you can still adjust to your new schedule. Actually, if you are fairly regular, functioning normally and pay close attention, its easy to tell when you are close to ovulating/are ovulating. Thats what I did when avoiding pregnancy (no birth control), worked like a charm. I also used the same method when trying to get pregnant.
Yes, but according to their religious beliefs, they aren’t supposed to try to prevent pregnancy in any way, which would include abstaining during her fertile days. Thankfully they seem a bit less zealous than Jim Bob and Michelle. I wouldn’t be surprised if they wound up with 8 or 10 children over a 20 year period, which, while a lot, is still more manageable than 19. Especially when you consider the toll that pregnancy takes on a woman’s body.
Beliefs vary. Some people of their persuasion reject “artificial” BC but are totally down with stuff like LAM (breastfeeding as BC), Natural Family Planning, the rhythm methods, etc. Weirdly, that’s not unique to them – lots of liberal “granola” types have very similar stances. Jim Bob and Michelle seemed to actively be trying to create as many kids as possible – which is sort of different from saying, “whatever happens, happens.” If you poke around online, you’ll find that Quiverfull people are split about stuff like IVF and reproductive assistance – some of them support anything that allows them to have more kids, while others oppose it on the grounds that nature should not be subverted and if you’re done, you’re done. The other huge family on TLC, the Bates, actually did use modern medicine to help them have more, whereas many Quiverfull families would reject that idea.
My guess is that Josh and Anna might be a bit wiser than their families and choose to use natural BC methods to subversively plan their kids a bit more and give themselves space. Frankly, they lack the huge house and resources of Jim Bob and Michelle, so I don’t blame them.
There are also aps for this too. As long as you log regularly it tracks your cycles to let you know when you’re ovulating and when to have sex and not to have sex depending on your *cough* goals.
Yupp
I’m not religious or opposed to birth control. But I react badly to it so I refuse to go on birth control.
While my husband waits for his vasectomy, we use a combination of natural family planning around my ovulation date and pull out(yes, I’m aware of the risk).
We’ve been doing this for 5 years now and only gotten pregnant when we wanted to, though I would never suggest it to anyone else. It’s our personal choice and we’re okay with the risk because we can support more children if it fails, we’d just rather stick with one
This is exactly what we did. Never got pregnant when we didn’t want to.
When I got pregnant with my third child, we were being pretty vigilant about avoiding the fertile days, so the pregnancy was a bit of a surprise (we knew the risk of course). But it was soon after my second, so I had hoped the NFP would have worked for a few more months. And now my third child is the most spirited determined child, I think she was destined to do things on her own time in her own way!
Audrey- Have you considered an IUD? It’s the most effective birth control for women and there’s one that’s light on hormones, if that helps you. It also gets bonus points for stopping periods for us in the lucky minority!
Congrats to them.
Just like their parents taught them. In some ways I find this sad and in other ways I just am so thankful for the parents I was luck enough to have. Good luck to them.
Wow. I’m a year older than her, but she looks at least ten years older than me. I can’t imagine handling one kid, let alone that many… especially in a household where I was expected to do it full-time while serving my husband too, with no other purpose in life. *That* crushing inequality sounds more like a mentality that the “devil” would approve than anything else.
I don’t think she is necessarily on birth control. Not everyone can get pregnant right away, sometimes it takes awhile, especially if she isn’t charting her fertile days. I have a feeling Michelle was charting with 3 different apps, an Excel spreadsheet, and ovulation tests.
Particularly if she is nursing.
Yes, I get the sense that Michelle is allllllll about being pregnant and that she actively tries to get pregnant as often as possible. These two may simply be a little more hands-off about planning, one way or the other. I am one of 3 kids, my parents didn’t actively use any BC or try to space, but there is still a 20 month gap between myself and one brother, and then a 2 year gap between him and the youngest. My mom just nursed a lot and I also suspect that with small kids around, they were often just too tired to get on with procreating!
I don’t watch the show that often, but does Michelle nurse the babies exclusively for 6+ months, or do they get weaned early? I know nursing is not perfect/reliable birth control but it can definitely keep your kids a little more spaced out *if* you are doing it exclusively.
Natural family planning and breastfeeding can make it easy to space out your kids. Lots of people take ages to get their periods back after having kids, especially if exclusively breastfeeding. I wasn’t that lucky and got my period back about 3.5 months post-partum but I know of many who have been period 12+ months after having a baby. Add in avoid sexy times around ovulation and it’s easy.
Many people here have mentioned breastfeeding as birth control here… I am not sure why. It in no way halts the release of eggs – you can 100% get pregnant while breastfeeding. If you need famous reminders look at Lily Allen or Tori Spelling.
Is that a wig or she actually cut her hair into that style?!! Shudder!!!!
I know! I stared at the picture in disbelief for a good minute. It truly is helmet-like. It has to be a wig, right?
As a believer in God who practices a religion, I do think children are a blessing and the Bible says so. That being said, I’m starting to see the Duggars as a very cult-like family where so far everyone has held the same beliefs when it comes to conceiving, not to mention the whole fame/money/reality tv aspect of their lives.
Yikes, they BOTH look way older than their ages.
I’m curious how they wait in between kids… do they do the pull out method? Are they allowed to? Can he use condoms? I know she can’t use birth control, but can he… as the man?
Typically a woman is only fertile about 4-5 days during her cycle.
Well at least she isn’t popping out a baby every year, good for her. I don’t know these people but I don’t see them having nineteen kids. If so, she’s already behind by three.
13 months to conceive or deliver?
I just can’t imagine how many grand babies the Duggar parents will have after all 19 (well 18 – the oldest girl is stuck) have babies of their own.
I read it as deliver, so they made it 3 to 4 months before conceiving….
Some people love babies and want to have siblings close in age. That said, having only two kids, three years apart, this is the stuff of my nightmares. I only hope they are doing this because it is what they truly want, as opposed to some sort of competition with their family.
Apparently, Anna had a miscarriage after her first child was born. My bet would be that they don’t use birth control, but also aren’t actively trying to conceive as soon as medically possible after birth the way Jim Bob and Michelle did. I’ve known non-religious couples who took a “eh, it’ll happen if it happens, but we’re not going to look at charts” attitude toward conception, and it often took a couple of years before there was a pregnancy.
They went on a trip somewhere and the show showcased them as being alone and how it was to travel with four kids, but it was reported poor Jana was on the trip helping take care of the kids but she was edited out of that show so it looked like the couple did it on their own.
I’m really starting to feel for Jana. Will she ever have a life of her own.
I think Anna has really grown into her looks. She is really looking good. Josh on the other hand…..welllll…he gives me overgrown toddler vibes. At the same time, he looks way older than 26.
This is what they want. What’s it matter? Both my grandmothers had 10 kids in less than 15 years. All of them were well cared for, even the one who raised kids in a one room house built out of stone with a dirt floor that they shared with the animals.
Yeah, I’m one of 6 kids that my parents had in 9 years. Everybody happy, healthy, and well cared for. Some parents can’t handle one, others handle a pile without blinking twice. People who can’t handle one seem to really resent the women who can deal with a bus load.
Another vagina wishing it could order a one-way ticket to the ends of the earth.
My understanding has always been that many of these “Quiverfull” families DO in fact use BC – being subversive and all. A lot of the women rely strongly on breastfeeding as BC (although it’s not as reliable as people think). They also can covertly use the rhythm and NFP methods.
I find it really, really hard to believe that these families do nothing to attempt to control their reproductive lives. Jim Bob and Michelle always seemed like they were actively trying to have as many kids as possible, but Josh and Anna always seemed like they were more up-front with their “whatever happens” attitude, which seemed to suggest to me that they were more open to “sly birth control.”
He is NOT aging well. Yikes.
They just had an episode with josh and his family and Anna has said she has taken several pregnancy tests since her last baby. As for birth control, I’m pretty sure Michelle said she was on it at the beginning of her marriage but she still got pregnant and ended up having a miscarriage. She and Jim bob blamed the miscarriage on birth control and decided that they would leave it up to god. I think they influenced that decision on their kids. I don’t think they would have a problem if one of their kids decided to wait a couple of years to have kids once they are married.
He was never good looking, but WHEW, he got old and unattractive FAST. He looks mid to late 30s, and she looks early to mid 30s.
Dear Duggards, STAHP!!
I agree, they look at least 10 years older than 26.
Fourth child in six years? That makes my uterus hurt.
Every time I read a story about a Duggar, my uterus and ovaries cower in fear.
Mine do a happy little dance with their friend Mirena.
I bet they do. I reassure mine with the knowledge that the tubes between them are long gone. No eggs need apply.
Three cheers for birth control!
These women appear to be listening to matriarch Michelle when she says to spread em anytime he feels like it. It seems to be a contest among these girls. If they call children God’s give, does that mean you’re unloved by God if you can’t conceive. I think they’re all full of crap….and I can’t stop being amused by their lack of style…the men in their red shirts, wonder what the significance of that is. And…her teeth, they’re crooked and gross. These people have amassed a fortune on this little show and she can’t go to the dentist. Ai yi yi.
I want to know what happens when one turns out to be infertile, have a low sperm count or gasp, gay! What will JB and Michelle do?
Can’t say it for a fact, but one of the boys makes my gaydar alert go off with bells and whistles. I don’t know why, but I don’t want to say his name….he recently graduated from home school high school and was sent to some military camp, probably to get the gay beat out of him. These people are cultish and selfish. I would dread to think what would happen if one of the girls couldn’t conceive. These are the real life Stepford wives….she’d probably disappear. Run for the hills Jinger and take Josiah with you!
Breeders. Any news item connected in this family will come back to popping out babies. So limited, but of course their religion dictates that they have to do this, so that it can spread. Other religions have done the same.
That word is horrifically offensive. The word “breeders.” It’s an epithet and it’s dehumanizing. I really hate that word.
I could never live the way this family does, but there are less bigoted terms we could use when describing their choices and our disagreements with them. One of my best friends and her husband have six kids. They’ve been done for a long time, but they always wanted a big family, and they made one and love it. I’ve heard people whisper that word behind her back, and the hate in that word is disturbing.
If they weren’t taking care of their own family and paying their own way, I could see that level of disdain…but that isn’t what this family is doing, so I don’t understand it. The clown car vag jokes are funny. The word “breeder” has much weightier connotations.
These people are irresponsible A$$holes.
If each kid has 19 kids, that’s 361 grandchildren. Good luck having everyone over for Thanksgiving.
It scares me to think her and I are the same age and I just had my first baby…can’t imagine having four. Kudos to them, I guess?!
I think her slightly crooked teeth are cute!! Similar to Heigl’s little snaggletooth.
They both look at least 10 years older than they are.
I absolutely love being around large families, but making one of my own is just not for me. I’m technically an only child (I had steps later, but grew up largely as an only). My husband is an only child. Our daughter, barring any miraculous failures of virtually foolproof birth control, is also an only child.
Every family is different.
I wish that I could be a big family person, but I just am not…so I live vicariously through friends and relatives who have big broods at holiday gatherings and such.