GrandBates on the Way - Whitney is Pregnant

[singsingsing]

All the Bateses have been MIA lately, no blogs updates, no twitter updates, nobody's even pinning anything on Pinterest (lol). Maybe they're busy with Zach's campaign and Alyssa's wedding plans. Who knows.

[snarkykitty]

I could see TLC featuring this on an upcoming 19 K&C episode, probably along with the Duggars campaigning for Zach. Are the TLC cameras following the Duggars on their book tour?

Maybe Jill will travel to TN to be the midwife?

[Inky]

Kelly may just be waiting until Whitney passes the 3 months mark. It's pretty common for people to keep that information to themselves until they get into the 2nd trimester. Or she may be waiting until Whitney and Zach themselves make the announcement.

[MalteseBaby]

Whee! We ALL know the Bates are up in arms over Gothard. The angst may have spilled over to the poor dumb kids, including Zack.

Zack and Whitney have their own damned blog. Is there some reason they can't announce their own pregnancy? If they can get to pregnant in 3 months of marriage or less, then by God, they can stand up and tell their own news when they are ready....

Or not... then we can make all kinds of remarks about Whitney's abdominal girth as was done to Anna Duggar several times in the past few years when she was not pregnant. You pick your poison, fundie royalty. :)

Get to writing, Whitney! You didn't drink Gothard Kool-Aid. :)

[EmiGirl]

Maybe Jill will travel to TN to be the midwife?

She'd have to jump through hoops to get a license to practice here.

[16strong]

I really think Kellys quietness has to do with parts of her world being out of control. The whole Gothard debacle had to have taken up at least two minutes of her day, plus Erins pending graduation, Alyssa's wedding, Zachs campaign, and now whomever is knocked up, apparently Whitney. One of her previous posts on Michael was that she was returing to work, as well.

The last time she dropped off the radar was when Erin got married, as Erin owned the laptop. Was it not for some fan sending them a laptop, we'd probably still be waiting for Erins Wedding pics. I think she enjoys posting, and enjoys reading and replying to the comments, but unless she has a few extra hours in the day, she's probably up to her ears in her new life of having less kids at home. In most families, when kids move out its less work at home for the parents. Not in this case.

I think she probably hasn't been posting or approving comments because it means she doesn't have to deal with the Gothard storm. A new post would only invite extra comments on the subject. Hell, even I posted something to her blog about Gothard (didn't get approved, of course). But I think the Gothard situation is more than she can (or wants to) deal with. She'll probably let the worst of it blow over and then return.

[MalteseBaby]

If you want to post something general to the fundie world, try posting at RG. They are pretty lax in what they let go by, :).

Someone wondered how many Gothard babies Steve ( and possibly Bill) fathered. Post stayed up for days. I was thrilled.

[Ursula]

Yes, hello. Long (loooooooonnnnggg) time lurker, first time poster. The speculation about why Kelly has been quiet about this news has coaxed me out of my lurker shell. So, here's what we know so far:

On January 20th, Kelly posted this response to a commenter on the family website:

Kelly January 20, 2014 at 6:12 am

Dear Gina,

The message was referring to Zach, himself…not a baby. They have taken pregnancy tests since being married for over a month now, but were sad to find no baby news yet…Of course, God’s timing is perfect and they are content with His plan…but they had gotten their hopes up a little. Love, Kelly

Link: blog.thebatesfamily.com/2014/01/15/getting-ready-for-the-wedding/#comment-18520 (I hope I did the link breaking thing right :embarrassed: )

Even if Whitney's oven was bunned THE VERY NEXT DAY (so, Jan 21st) she would only be 47 DAYS or six and a half weeks along as of March 8th, the day Kelly let the cat out of the bag. JTFC child collectors, at least let the pee stick dry!

So IF they're now going to wait until Whitney is past the first trimester/three months/12 weeks, we've got a long wait ahead of us because *at the very most* she is a mere seven weeks along.

Which does make me wonder if, like many pregnancies, this one has come to an end, hence the silence. Perhaps it was even a chemical pregnancy to begin with. It was just way too soon to be announcing this to the world, though I get the excitement of first time grandparents wanting to tell the world. But again, give the zygote a chance to attach to the wall of the uterus ffs!

If there's been a loss, that is quite sad and I wouldn't wish the loss of a pregnancy on anyone, especially a couple that, from what we're privy to, is actively trying to conceive and wants a child. On the other hand I do not wish any more human beings being born into this completely FUBAR lifestyle. So I could not feel too bad for them. No matter what has happened with this pregnancy, we all know they'll end up with an exorbitant amount of children eventually anyway. Whitney is only TWENTY! *SCREAMS*

Of course, I do remember the speculation that Whitney was looking a little thicker around her midsection in their honeymoon pictures, and there's a photo on the Bates' Facebook fanpage from about two weeks ago where she looks a bit fuller still (difficult to tell for sure though - her dress is black) so a part of me is hoping she gives birth to one of those very healthy, very large seven month preemies :twisted:

[singsingsing]

Kelly made the comment on January 20th. That doesn't mean that Whitney absolutely wasn't pregnant on that date. She could have taken her last pregnancy test a month earlier and was about to take another one. Or she might have taken one and not shared it with the family yet. Or she could have missed her period the next day, in which case she would have been pregnant already for a couple of weeks. In any case it looks like she IS pregnant, and fundies usually have no issue announcing, as the saying goes, before the pee on the stick is dry.

Whitney did not look pregnant on her honeymoon. At all. The idea that she looked 'fuller' is amazing to me. Go back and actually look at the pictures from the honeymoon. There is no way that she looks pregnant. I'm not sure who started this idea, but they must have rock hard abs and only associate with anorexic women or something.

[Ursula]

Very true, but again, Kelly's exact comment was "They have taken pregnancy tests since being married for over a month now, but were sad to find no baby news yet…". Zac and Whitney got married on December 14th so as of January 20th they had been married for only one month and six days. To me that would mean they took the test sometime during the previous five days (Dec 15th-19th) for it to have been "over a month". But Kelly could have just been going by Whitney's ovulation cycle (gross that they would know this) or something. Or she was just flat out being a lying liar who lies. Wouldn't be the first time with fundies - they seem to enjoy making baby Jesus cry. Not that I think she owes anyone answers about their reproductive business but when breeding for Jesus is your whole dang shtick, people are going to ask.

I agree she didn't look pregnant in her honeymoon pictures. She looked pretty much the same as in their engagement ones but other people see other things. I DO think, in that picture on the Facebook page, that her breasts are looking a little swollen but you can't tell what's going on with her stomach because the dress hangs away from her body. So who knows!

[kaschmit]

One thing that makes me happy its whitney is that whitney fully chose this lifestyle. She wasn't brainwashed, she knew exactly what she was getting into. Does she realize how hard it will be to be married and have babies? No, but who fully understands that going in!

We cant really call ourselves feminists if we say "that choice isn't acceptable" Whitney chose this.

As for Erin, she wasn't exposed to any alternative choices to becoming a helpmeet. I hope that they are waiting to have babies, but who knows. I will feel sad if she gets pregnant soon. I dont feel sad for Whitney.

[singsingsing]

All Kelly said was that Whitney had taken pregnancy tests since being married ('for over a month now' i.e. at that point they had been married 'for over a month') and that they were negative. She doesn't get anymore precise than that. It's entirely possible that Whitney doesn't even understand ovulation and thinks she can get pregnant anytime. The most likely interpretation is the straightforward one, that Kelly was told by Zach/Whitney that Whitney had taken pregnancy tests and they were negative - not that Kelly is randomly lying, or that she's tracking Whitney's menstrual cycles. Usually the simplest explanation is correct.

But the good news is that Kelly doesn't NEED to track the menstrual cycles of her daughters/daughters-in-law because people on the internet are keeping a close eye on their stomachs and breasts. What a relief!

[actuallyjessica]

or whitney could have taken the test a couple of days too soon and was actually pregnant, but too early for the HCG to register on the test :)

[bal maiden]

or whitney could have taken the test a couple of days too soon and was actually pregnant, but too early for the HCG to register on the test :)

Quite possible, but even if that is the case, Ursula's point about Whitney not being very far along still makes sense. If she is pregnant, they are probably waiting for her to hit the end of the first trimester.

[ljohnson2006]

It's sad that people are so obsessed with people they don't even know children and grandchildren. Why can't these families live lives where everyone doesn't know their private business? I could care less when Whitney got pregnant. Let her enjoy marriage. It's sad that all she's good for, is popping out babies.

[Incognito22]

Wow Singsingsing way to bite Ursela's head off for a hardly snarky first post on a snark forum! Holy carp eat a snickers in the damn prayer closet.

Ursela welcome to the super friendly site!

[singsingsing]

Wow Singsingsing way to bite Ursela's head off for a hardly snarky first post on a snark forum! Holy carp eat a snickers in the damn prayer closet.

Ursela welcome to the super friendly site!

Oops, I forgot that it's against the rules to disagree with someone on Free Jinger. Thanks for putting me back in my place. You know sometimes I get out of line here and have to be scolded. If you could airmail that snickers to me, though, that would be great - I don't have a prayer closet but I'll eat it right here in front of my computer as I continue to snark. On a snark board.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

All Kelly said was that Whitney had taken pregnancy tests since being married ('for over a month now' i.e. at that point they had been married 'for over a month') and that they were negative. She doesn't get anymore precise than that. It's entirely possible that Whitney doesn't even understand ovulation and thinks she can get pregnant anytime. The most likely interpretation is the straightforward one, that Kelly was told by Zach/Whitney that Whitney had taken pregnancy tests and they were negative - not that Kelly is randomly lying, or that she's tracking Whitney's menstrual cycles. Usually the simplest explanation is correct.

But the good news is that Kelly doesn't NEED to track the menstrual cycles of her daughters/daughters-in-law because people on the internet are keeping a close eye on their stomachs and breasts. What a relief!

OR it's entirely possible that she DOES understand her cycle and knows that her wedding date was close to her ovulation date. Or that Kelly's wording was weird and she meant they've been married for over a month and they've taken pregnancy tests during that time. I mean, it's not really that far fetched to think that people might not be entirely clear when speaking/writing without editing.

[silverspoons]

Maybe Kelly has learned a lesson after posting soon quickly her last pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. Didn't she post almost the same day as she found out? I remember one of the daughters got to look at the test for her. Then just a few weeks later she had to post the miscarriage. Maybe just like the failed courtship, Kelly has learned to be more careful with her posting.

[singsingsing]

OR it's entirely possible that she DOES understand her cycle and knows that her wedding date was close to her ovulation date. Or that Kelly's wording was weird and she meant they've been married for over a month and they've taken pregnancy tests during that time. I mean, it's not really that far fetched to think that people might not be entirely clear when speaking/writing without editing.

That's what I meant. I think my wording was worse than Kelly's. :P I think you and I are basically making the same point.

[Pretzel]

Dammit Kelly, nobody wants to know anything about your son's dilettante attempts to become a wannabe-famous backwater politician and his supporters, we wanna know who's preggers! :violin: :popcorn2:

[singsingsing]

Kelly has done this more than once, where she's teased some big announcement in the comments, then waited days to post, and then her post is something nobody cares about. Then she leaves everyone hanging for a few more days. I swear she does it on purpose. :P

[zekepes]

Chad has posted in his blog. He and Erin have lost a baby - I feel really sad for them :(

[VincentvanGoGo]

Chad has posted in his blog. He and Erin have lost a baby - I feel really sad for them :(

Ohh no :( That is so sad!

[singsingsing]

Aw, I'm really sad for them. Chad always seems really sweet and supportive, though. If that's how he truly is, I'm very glad that Erin ended up married to him and not some selfish asshole. I can't imagine documenting something like this on a blog, though... but I guess that's why I don't have a blog. I hope it was Erin's idea.