Joy and Austin 24

[3splenty]

On 9/13/2018 at 12:44 PM, Mama Mia said:

I don’t know... they waited to find out if it ( ha- just used “it” without realizing it at first!) was a boy or a girl until he was born, so might just be what they used. I didn’t find out ahead of time with any of mine, and definitely recall saying things like “it’s kicking” or “it’s pressing on my bladder” . Gideon was only a couple weeks old when that was filmed, and they are clearly exhausted. Probably just habit. But I know people who refer to their unborn baby, affectionately, as “the parasite” “the alien” etc....so could just be me lol.

When I was pregnant with my third kid, I worked in long term care.   The pregnancy wasn't planned, and I told a coworker that "it's really a surprise."   One of my dementia residents, overhearing the conversation, immediately snarled, "No, his name is Melvin Charles, not it, you ninny."  The name stuck...until my daughter was born.

[SapphireSlytherin]

13 minutes ago, 3splenty said:

No, his name is Melvin Charles, not it, you ninny."  The name stuck...until my daughter was born.

So, how old is little Melvina Charlene? Lol

[Dutchie]

16 hours ago, AtlanticTug said:

 In retrospect I don't know if it was really that easy/painless or if it's just that my pregnancies were SO awful and hard that anything that followed was like a dream

Very recognizable, I have two kids and had big depressions and overall hate towards the world during both pregnancy’s.  (Second baby we realized I was pregnant after hubby screamed “you are unbearable, you must be pregnant”, response “i’ll check” and a positive test thrown at his head.) I loved every contraction and have never been happier than the first months of their lives. I think the last part is because of the big difference. 

[3splenty]

21 hours ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

So, how old is little Melvina Charlene? Lol

Lol she's 11

[mango_fandango]

Holy shit, I just read this bit:

Spoiler

and that his mother had stabbed him not in the stomach but ''in the heart.'' 

Pretty sure if he’d been stabbed there he wouldn’t be alive today. 

ETA: Christ. He uses nasty disablist language about his own brother.

That dude sounds like he’s talking pure horseshit. His ego is huge. He sounds like some kind of narcissist.

[Bad Wolf]

I heard him talk once. We had a case here where 2 children had been locked in a bathroom and starved. He gave a talk to the people who were involved in their recovery.

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

Joy had some new pics of Gideon on her insta story. He is a cutie. 

[SapphireSlytherin]

LOL - he's an adorable littleoldmanbaby!

[sleepy_doggos]

What an Austin!

[TeaELSee]

He has very unique features.

[metheglyn]

Wow. He really does look so much like his Dad. He doesn't look like Joy at all!

[Sky with diamonds]

He is the twin of Austin. Cute pic.

[TuringMachine]

Wow those are definitely Jim Bob's brows / eyes on Gideon. And I think I see Joy / Michelle's chin on this one from her story:

In these most recent pics to me he looks like someone put Austin's nose and mouth on a Duggar.

[AtlanticTug]

I can see Jim Bob in the eyes anytime Gideon smiles. But his features are so overwhelmingly Austin to me that it's not so obvious.

[Pecansforeveryone]

Now that someone mentioned it, I can see Joy's chin with the rest of the features being Austin.

[Joyfully Available]

I caught up on this season of Counting On while cleaning out my closets. I needed some background noise, ok? It might just be me or maybe Joy has just been totally exhausted from pregnancy and a hard labor but it appears all the "joy" has been sucked right out of Joy. The marriage seems awkward, she seems exhausted, unsure, and down right sad.

A snippet from the latest episode that stood out to me was Joy talking about competitiveness amongst the siblings! She mentioned that they would all run as fast as they could to the line for meals because being last meant not getting very much food. Terrible! I know other Duggars have mentioned similarly disturbing food/mealtime related stories but it's still shocking hearing it. I just imagine (more so in the early Duggar days) the smallest children not being big or fast enough to get to the head of the food line and then going to bed hungry. She can't possibly want her own children to relive that...

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

26 minutes ago, Joyfully Available said:

I caught up on this season of Counting On while cleaning out my closets. I needed some background noise, ok? It might just be me or maybe Joy has just been totally exhausted from pregnancy and a hard labor but it appears all the "joy" has been sucked right out of Joy. The marriage seems awkward, she seems exhausted, unsure, and down right sad.

A snippet from the latest episode that stood out to me was Joy talking about competitiveness amongst the siblings! She mentioned that they would all run as fast as they could to the line for meals because being last meant not getting very much food. Terrible! I know other Duggars have mentioned similarly disturbing food/mealtime related stories but it's still shocking hearing it. I just imagine (more so in the early Duggar days) the smallest children not being big or fast enough to get to the head of the food line and then going to bed hungry. She can't possibly want her own children to relive that...

I think all those talking heads were filmed right after Gideon was born so that could account for a lot of the tiredness and seeming unhappiness. But  IA she seems very "unJoyfull" in the talking heads and if they were filmed with in the first few weeks of Gideon's life it is hard to say anything about how "off" she seems, since all new moms are a little off for a few weeks, simply from exhaustion, if not raging hormones as well.

[Carm_88]

Gideon is cute. I think Joy and Austin may have underestimated how much work a baby can be, but that's fairly normal for first time parents. Joy does seem off, but she may just hate the cameras and want it to be done. It's really hard to say.

[katilac]

On 9/14/2018 at 12:46 PM, HarleyQuinn said:

 If it makes you feel better, that book is likely fake. (or at least last I researched it was)

 

It read as fake or at least massively exaggerated to me, partially because at least a couple of the incidents he described would have almost certainly killed him The one I remember most is a long exposure to bleach and ammonia, but there were several unlikely scenarios. fwiw, the family members who have spoken out deny the abuse, but say that he did go into foster care at 12. 

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

1 hour ago, Carm_88 said:

Gideon is cute. I think Joy and Austin may have underestimated how much work a baby can be, but that's fairly normal for first time parents. Joy does seem off, but she may just hate the cameras and want it to be done. It's really hard to say.

I'm guessing her new owner husband is the one who isn't fond of the cameras.

I also wonder if they haven't seen what happened with Derelict and Jill & Josh and Anna and just want to avoid all of that all together but being left the hell alone to live their lives.  Of which I'm perfectly fine with, as long as they keep their hate to themselves and other like minded folks and leave the rest of us alone. 

[ati_escapee]

20 hours ago, Joyfully Available said:

I caught up on this season of Counting On while cleaning out my closets. I needed some background noise, ok? It might just be me or maybe Joy has just been totally exhausted from pregnancy and a hard labor but it appears all the "joy" has been sucked right out of Joy. The marriage seems awkward, she seems exhausted, unsure, and down right sad.

A snippet from the latest episode that stood out to me was Joy talking about competitiveness amongst the siblings! She mentioned that they would all run as fast as they could to the line for meals because being last meant not getting very much food. Terrible! I know other Duggars have mentioned similarly disturbing food/mealtime related stories but it's still shocking hearing it. I just imagine (more so in the early Duggar days) the smallest children not being big or fast enough to get to the head of the food line and then going to bed hungry. She can't possibly want her own children to relive that...

That is so terrible. All of the kidults need to understand that the TLC money won't last forever. I guess they think God will provide. ???

[jqlgoblue]

On 9/20/2018 at 1:27 PM, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

I also wonder if they haven't seen what happened with Derelict and Jill & Josh and Anna and just want to avoid all of that all together but being left the hell alone to live their lives.  Of which I'm perfectly fine with, as long as they keep their hate to themselves and other like minded folks and leave the rest of us alone. 

I doubt it, mostly b/c they (Austin mainly) don't seem like people who would learn from other people as examples. Joy has always seemed over it to me, basically since they broke her.

I have to think this new life is exhausting as compared to the TTH. Sure, she was a sister mom, but at the TTH is mass chaos w/o much structure. Austin seems very structured and I think Joy thought she'd like to help with his projects (likely things she didn't get to do at the TTH b/c those were the boy's jurisdictions). I think she did like helping Austin and would continued to have enjoyed it... but it's much harder to do that while pregnant... especially if she had undiagnosed gestational diabetes, etc... or needing to take care of a child simultaneously.

[HarleyQuinn]

On 9/20/2018 at 3:04 PM, katilac said:

It read as fake or at least massively exaggerated to me, partially because at least a couple of the incidents he described would have almost certainly killed him The one I remember most is a long exposure to bleach and ammonia, but there were several unlikely scenarios. fwiw, the family members who have spoken out deny the abuse, but say that he did go into foster care at 12. 

I have the same reaction to that book as I do Go Ask Alice now. I never questioned when I read it in middle school but now I'm like "Yeah, there's no way." You didn't drink ammonia several times and treat your own stomach stab wound at age what, 9? It all seems very exaggerated. 

[cascarones]

 I'm glad that he was there for her, giving a lot of himself, as she recovered, I don't find it sad or an exaggeration. The particulars don't matter, she felt helped and loved, which I think is the vitally important for new moms. Especially after a hard birth that didn't go the way they'd wished.

[freethemall]

Interesting, I'm reading Educated by Tara Westover right now and it has the same criticisms about her exaggerating parts of her story, the abuse and many accidents. Her parents have denied it. But then, wouldn't any neglectful, abusive parent deny it?