Erin Paine(Bates) is a momma!

[Geechee Girl]

The Bateses sure make some pretty pretty babies. I'm happy for Chad and Erin.

[16strong]

Family is one possibility, locals are another. Unless they buy stuff online (which could result in some interesting google ads), there is a chance that they could be recognized buying stuff at a store. A simple snap of an iphone and suddenly the whole world knows.

If they use Adblock Plus and Chrome incognito, the interesting ads won't be a problem. Plus, I'm pretty sure you can get condoms off drugstore.com. There are ways to discreetly buy such items.

[Ursula]

Having sex with a condom on is still trying to deny a blessing from THE LORD. Every act of fornication is supposed to be open to welcoming a baby to these fruitcakes. That's why this scenario fascinates me so. WHAT WILL THEY DO?

I'm not so sure that Erin and Chad are still on the "God will make everything perfect if you just live your life perfect" train.

After all, they did everything right. They were the PERFECT fundie couple. No touching for 3 years, perfect wedding, perfect marriage. God was supposed to bless them!

Instead, they suffered through multiple miscarriages and infertility. Even for someone NOT raised in the ATI mindset, infertility will really make you take a good, hard look at things and really question stuff. I would be really surprised if on some level, it didn't make them re-examine their beliefs.

I think that on many levels, they have accepted the medical reality of Erin's condition. I think they've already realized that building their family will not be all roses and Jesus like they once thought it would be. I think that they've realized that their previous beliefs didn't prepare them at all for this, and I think on some level, they realized that just trusting God didn't work...but trusting a doctor did.

Mostly though, I don't buy that Chad loves the quiverfull ideal more than he loves Erin and Carson. I don't think Gil and Kelly love their dogma more than they love their daughter. I think that if a doctor they trust (like Dr. Paine) is able to sell them on some form of BC by making it less objectionable to their values, I think there's a good chance they may use it.

To the bolded: We're talking about a couple who sent their daughters, some of whom were still underage, off on mission trips with Got-hard himself, while 100% aware of the allegations of sexual harassment against him. What, did they think their girls would be safe because that pervert is more known to go for blondes and the Bates women are brunettes? So, I'm not sure they do love their children more than their dogma/disgusting leader. I really hope I'm wrong though.

[usmcmom]

I think we might actually see, in Chad Paine, a fundie husband who practices that sacrificial love fundies insist they all have for their wives. After all, they are called to DIE FOR THEM!! :? But we've never really seen a fundie husband articulate what it looks like to them to love their wives like Christ loved the church. I think Chad might be the one who truly sacrifices for Erin's health and safety. He seems like he is ready, willing, and happy to change his vision of their family plans to preserve his wife's health.

I wish other headships would follow his example. I'm looking at YOU, Nathan Maxwell :evil:

[HuggleMonster]

Have we ever had a genuine, high risk from the get go Fundie before?

I know Michelle was high risk after Josie, but at her age that's not a huge shock.

I'm not going to make any firm predictions. I just hope that Chad loves Erin enough to look at the risks and all their troubles and makes the right choice. His dad is a doctor, so there's a chance Chad may have discussed it with him or at least done a curious Google search.

Edited to add missing words.

[halcionne]

Have we ever had a genuine, high risk from the get go Fundie before?

I know Michelle was high risk after Josie, but at her age that's not a huge shock.

I'm not going to make any firm predictions. I just hope that Chad loves Erin enough to look at the risks and all their troubles and makes the right choice. His dad is a doctor, so there's a chance Chad may have discussed it with him or at least done a curious Google search.

Edited to add missing words.

There's Kelly Bradrick, but I don't think you could call her high risk from the start.

[lilith]

There's Kelly Bradrick, but I don't think you could call her high risk from the start.

And Melanie Maxwell - after years of infertility (that may have involved conceiving and miscarrying, Steve wouldn't tell) all of her pregnancies have been high risk

[SquirrelySquirrel]

Why do people here insist on setting yourselves up for disappointment? :lol: I'm guilty of it too, so I'm being realistic this time.

I know we all hope they wise up and limit the pregnancies, but condoms and IUDs? Get real. I'd lay money on abstinence, on the very slim off-chance they decide to be smart and use some kind of family planning, but I don't see that coming into play for another 5 kids or so, if ever.

[Ralar]

Maybe Chad and his dad will go off on a father-son vacation, during which Dr. Dad will secretly perform a vasectomy on Chad. Only Chad and Dr. Dad will know about the snip-snip, unless Chad lets Erin in on the secret.

[Ralar]

One thing I have noticed and it's just an observation, not a criticism of posters who have mentioned this, is what method can be used without risk of "discovery". It just has me wondering that even a fundie married couple cannot have privacy in this area, either because of a sibling helping out finding such "evidence" in their home and / or the lack of proper boundaries where family members actually are privy to this sort of thing. Similar to some of our famous fundies charting Mom's periods and praying for the next baby. It's just odd to me that this sort of thing can be considered a family affair, that a couple reproductive and BC choices are well, family business.

Just an observation.

These people hang out with the Duggars. Are we forgetting that Jill "stole" a pregnancy test from her mother!

[Ralar]

Exactly. And Gil and Kelly seem to be OK with Alyssa wearing pants. They said somewhere that when their kids are still in the family home, they have to abide by the rules, but once they're married and out of the house, they can be trusted to make their own rules. Yes, Alyssa's wearing pants and sleeveless tank tops which is huge in the fundie world, but she is still mostly covered. She's not into tube tops/crop tops and ass-skimming shorts.

It doesn't matter how Gil and Kelly feel about Alyssa wearing pants or Erin using birth control. John is now Alyssa's headship, and Chad is Erin's headship. The wimmin-folk are required to follow the instructions of the headship regardless of what their former headships believe.

[amster]

Maybe Chad and his dad will go off on a father-son vacation, during which Dr. Dad will secretly perform a vasectomy on Chad. Only Chad and Dr. Dad will know about the snip-snip, unless Chad lets Erin in on the secret.

Wow. That's enough internet for me for today...

Bye! See you tomorrow!

[J'Lurker]

Totally agree. I doubt they could have been more perfect or prayed harder than when Erin was having the miscarriages, and they still needed a doctor. My guess is that they'll use some BC and have, at most, three more babies spaced 2-3 years apart.

I think Erin was induced. Baby was born at 10:10 PM and I didn't see any IVs in the pictures so far.

I think I see IVs in a picture here: allaboutthebates.blogspot.ca/search?updated-max=2015-05-15T16:53:00-07:00&max-results=7

He looks brand new, and no one looks prepped for the OR. I don't think c-section. I have no idea how many bags are on a typical IV for a normal delivery vs. induction/high risk delivery... I bet we'll find out soon whether or not she was induced. I think People will have the article, but I don't think they'll be cover material like Jill Duggar.

[J'Lurker]

Just noticed the pictures of Erin, Carson and Jeb(?) and Judson(?). The thought of those two young kids around such a NEW preemie baby makes me squirm. Not judging their parenting choices quite yet, but I would have waited at least until I was in my own home, and could ensure they didn't touch a single hospital surface before touching my precious blessing.

[WonderingInWA]

My first baby was born 18 minutes after I arrived at the hospital and they STILL had enough time to poke me with an IV! No induction, no meds, but still had an IV (I could never figure that one out!). So, you know, Erin very well could have been induced, and had the IV for those induction meds and then also US hospitals just love to give you fluids while you are in labor, I guess! It doesn't look like a c-section -- in the photo where the family is blurred in the background and the baby is being handled by someone with gloves in the foreground, there is no curtain like there would have been with a c-section. And yes, being born at 10:10pm indicates either an induction or just natural progression of labor and delivery.

[alba]

Just noticed the pictures of Erin, Carson and Jeb(?) and Judson(?). The thought of those two young kids around such a NEW preemie baby makes me squirm. Not judging their parenting choices quite yet, but I would have waited at least until I was in my own home, and could ensure they didn't touch a single hospital surface before touching my precious blessing.

I thought 36 weeks was full-term? Most of my knowledge of pregnancy/childbirth comes from FJ, though, so I could be misremembering.

At any rate, when my sister was born at 37 weeks my 4-year-old self and 5-year-old sister went to see/hold her in hospital. I kind of thought that was normal when someone has a baby. Erin's a fundie; her siblings are practically her children, after all.

[Fundie Bunny]

I thought 36 weeks was full-term? Most of my knowledge of pregnancy/childbirth comes from FJ, though, so I could be misremembering.

At any rate, when my sister was born at 37 weeks my 4-year-old self and 5-year-old sister went to see/hold her in hospital. I kind of thought that was normal when someone has a baby. Erin's a fundie; her siblings are practically her children, after all.

As far as i know, anywhere from 37 to 42 weekds is full term.

And as for Jeb and Judson, last year we took my three year old cousin to meet my niece at the hospital. No one even looked weird at us, here it's a normal thing, don't know about US

[Queen Of Hearts]

My daughter was born at 35 weeks. The doctor said they consider 36 weeks and on full term, and 35 weeks could be considered either way, depending on how the baby is doing. In our case, she was released from the hospital in three days with no typical 'preemie' signs.

Oh, and add me into the group who think Kelly looks pregnant. Not saying she is... but she does look heavier than I've seen in the past.

[MalteseBaby]

IF Chad and Erin really have no privacy in their own home, then they could buy a locking medicine cabinet to store birth control or buy any other locking box that fits under the bed ( for convenience) and put condoms and contraceptive foam in there.

Condoms plus foam or other spermicidal barrier reaches 100% effectiveness and my OB instructed us to use this after my near- fatal C section. I was advised strongly against another pregnancy for 2 years, not that I would have ever wanted to get pregnant again. Once was it for me. The combo of condoms plus foam worked very well for us. It's not " sexy", but it's definitely safe.

Agree that the items could be bought from drugstore.com or a similar trusted website, if, again, privacy is such a big concern for a married couple, which is insane in my opinion.

[nokidsmom]

Family is one possibility, locals are another. Unless they buy stuff online (which could result in some interesting google ads), there is a chance that they could be recognized buying stuff at a store. A simple snap of an iphone and suddenly the whole world knows.

To the bolded: another price of fame.

True there's still internet, ads notwithstanding, there's purchasing while away from home (say that they visit John and Alyssa in Florida and make a stop at the local CVS, is anyone going to notice or care) plus there's still locking medicine cabinets, but some "helpful" sibling might wonder what's in there too after they try to open. Though once little Carson is older, the argument can be made that it has to be childproof, but still....if I had a sibling or anyone trying to look around in my home for any reason, I would be seriously pissed.

Anyhoo, such a shame that a fundie married couple can't have real privacy in something that is no one's business but their own and unfortunately part of the problem is that they don't realize that they are entitled to that privacy. The thought of telling nosy family members to MYOB is just not something that occurs to them either.

[nokidsmom]

It doesn't matter how Gil and Kelly feel about Alyssa wearing pants or Erin using birth control. John is now Alyssa's headship, and Chad is Erin's headship. The wimmin-folk are required to follow the instructions of the headship regardless of what their former headships believe.

Right, but neither Alyssa or Erin have done anything that would seriously challenge Gil and Kelly either. I suspect Kelly may not be really keen on Alyssa's tight jeans or sleeveless tops but it's nothing in the grand scheme of things and she probably knows that. Now, if one of their girls decided to do something really radical by their standards even after she got married like go to a real (not a Crown) college for their degree in women's studies, dye their hair green, get piercings, say they are atheist, wait to have kids because of education/career, etc. etc, you can be darn sure that Kelly and Gil would not be happy at all. Sure it still shouldn't matter it but it would to them. Somehow I don't think the whole "follow the headship thing" would work here if said headship took things in a very different direction than what Gil and Kelly can tolerate.

Remember they had a very tight rein on their children. I don't think that letting go after that level of control comes easy and that can be true of any parent, fundie or non fundie, to do this. Now, Kelly may be handling it all ok but if she's having any struggles with it, she's not going to say it. She knows how it would be perceived. But really, she and Gil haven't been seriously challenged (yet) with all the possible directions their children may go.

[nolongerIFBx]

Maybe Chad and his dad will go off on a father-son vacation, during which Dr. Dad will secretly perform a vasectomy on Chad. Only Chad and Dr. Dad will know about the snip-snip, unless Chad lets Erin in on the secret.

If Dr. Paine went to the trouble to get his own "sin" of a vasectomy reversed, why would he perform the same "sin" on his son? I'd predict that Erin will be on an aspirin regimen as soon as she begins to show any signs of ovulating again but that fear for her life/fear of another loss will cause Chad to only want sex during times where it is mostly safe even if they are not officially practicing NFP. I imagine just the fear could decrease his sex drive the same as ED and vaginismus can be problems for those raised believing that sex is bad. The mind is truly amazing. (Just graduated and I'm already missing psychology classes. Maybe a masters is in my future! Studying the affects of Christian fundamentalism could be my dream vocation. . .)

[Bugaboo]

here's another picture:

I adore this picture! She and Chad look beyond happy and so in love! I know this was a long anticipated child, so good for them! I really like these two, something about them doesn't scream uber fundie.

[SassyPants]

BC- all a fundie headship has to declare is that BC and family size was laid on his heart. Done.

How does selling your kids' private moments and anonymity dovetail with the concept of modesty or JOY?

I'd think the savior would be more appalled by child exploitation vs BC use and logical control of family size with the goal of doing what's best for the kids.

Who cares if you have a billion kids but actually care for none of them...do you still get credit for having them? That sounds a lot like teenager thinker.

[mpheels]

My guess is a C-section as well, although the hospital stay could be because Carson was born at 36 weeks.

The extended hospital stay would have also given doctors some time to monitor Erin for blood clots and/or bleeding problems.