John and Chelsy 9: Title Update: Baby Madeline Is Here 10 Weeks Early

[SassyPants]

And let’s remember she said that she hadn’t been to the dentist in TEN years, so this is well before her Maxwell days. I wonder if her parents go to the dentist as it seems once their kids hit adult age they stop taking them for check ups? 

[MaryatHome]

There are any number of contributing factors IRT cardiac valvular disease.  It's true that rheumatic/strep disease is the most common cause, but I'm going to cut C and the Bons a little slack on the possibility that there was a youthful infection that went untreated.  Hidden/asymptomatic strep is a thing; I know because I had a child with it, and I was a medically aware parent.  The child in question had a scratchy throat for a half a day in his springtime allergy season, with no fever, rash, or lethargy.  At his next doctor visit, she heard a new heart sound, ran the strep test, then ordered a complete heart workup at the pediatric cardiologist at the local children's hospital.  Thankfully, he didn't have any long-term problems associated with this event, but I'll go on the record that things happen that we can't control.  I'm still of the opinion that the lack of dental care and obvious periodontal disease is at a minimum a contributing factor.

[anjulibai]

It's interesting that Chelsy says she'd been very sick when she gave birth to Madeline, and that was a contributing factor to Madeline being born early. That's different from what she said at the time, which was they weren't sure why Madeline came early. 

I worry that Chelsy won't follow doctors' advice about her care. I also worry that she'll try a bunch of alternative crap, or has tried to treat this with alternative stuff, without mentioning it, before it became obvious she needed to see a real doctor. 

[MomJeans]

The Bontragers didn’t get their children needed speech therapy- which was likely free.

I won’t give them the benefit of the doubt that they always obtained timely medical treatment for their kids.  I could imagine them saying “it’s just scarlet fever, she’ll be fine.”

 

 

[Giraffe]

The Maxwells are known for getting (non-mental health) medical care so it wouldn’t surprise me if Chelsy’s vaccinated, especially with a preemie. They’re also likely preventing a la Chris & Anna when Anna was in treatment.

[physicalscience]

Chelsy has commented on her blog she couldn’t endorse Debbie Pearl’s Helpmeet book ONLY because Debbie recommends family planning and Chelsy disagreed with that. 
 

that was her only issue with the book. 
 

I’m honestly not sure she would prevent. Hopefully she has changed her tune. 

[Giraffe]

2 minutes ago, physicalscience said:

Chelsy has commented on her blog she couldn’t endorse Debbie Pearl’s Helpmeet book ONLY because Debbie recommends family planning and Chelsy disagreed with that. 
 

that was her only issue with the book. 
 

I’m honestly not sure she would prevent. Hopefully she has changed her tune. 

It’s disgusting that birth control is what she took issue with! Of all the Maxwells Chris and Anna were (imo) the last I expected would prevent so it wouldn’t surprise me if Chelsy makes an exception when it comes to life saving surgery since she said she almost died when she had Madeline.
 

Of course in good fundy fashion she’ll never admit to preventing but it’s sounds like her life will be in danger if she becomes pregnant again before surgery. I’m sure the doctors have been very clear that surgery will be canceled if she gets pregnant. 

[theologygeek]

The poor girl!  She has so much to deal with.  I know two people who got bell's palsy right after getting the covid vaccine, and one person who got it during covid.  Their doctors all said that it was on the rise due to covid and/or the vaccine.  Regarding the dentist and adult children...  Can't force them to go.  One of my kids won't go unless he's dying.  One of my kids is dentist obsessed and finds reasons to go.  One goes when the mood strikes him.  They all got dental care when they were minors, but once they turned 18, they went when they decided to or when they got tired of me nagging them.  I hope her surgery goes well.  I felt bad when I read her post.  

[JermajestyDuggar]

4 minutes ago, Giraffe said:

It’s disgusting that birth control is what she took issue with! Of all the Maxwells Chris and Anna were (imo) the last I expected would prevent so it wouldn’t surprise me if Chelsy makes an exception when it comes to life saving surgery since she said she almost died when she had Madeline.
 

Of course in good fundy fashion she’ll never admit to preventing but it’s sounds like her life will be in danger if she becomes pregnant again before surgery. I’m sure the doctors have been very clear that surgery will be canceled if she gets pregnant. 

I agree. The Bonts and Maxwells are both completely obsessed with letting god control your womb. Remember it was Chelsy and John’s wedding that Marlin paraded the reversal kids and talked about a fucking vasectomy reversal at a wedding ceremony. Although I feel bad for Chelsy, I have little hope she will stop the baby train. 

[Smash!]

27 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Remember it was Chelsy and John’s wedding that Marlin paraded the reversal kids and talked about a fucking vasectomy reversal at a wedding ceremony.

Yes more kids at the expense of mama Maxwells mental health. But women are just vessels destined to birth the army of god, not actual people with basic human rights it seems.

[Giraffe]

1 hour ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Although I feel bad for Chelsy, I have little hope she will stop the baby train. 

This. She's going to be just like Alyssa Bates and get pregnant again as soon as they tell her she'll "probably" be ok. 

[MaryatHome]

More wonderings: No mention of Chelsy's troubles (in the form of prayer requests) for either the Bon's  blog or on Allison's.  Allison's has gone silent since her baby was born last year, but her insta is fairly active and no nothing there.  I wonder what's up with that.

[JermajestyDuggar]

7 minutes ago, MaryatHome said:

More wonderings: No mention of Chelsy's troubles (in the form of prayer requests) for either the Bon's  blog or on Allison's.  Allison's has gone silent since her baby was born last year, but her insta is fairly active and no nothing there.  I wonder what's up with that.

The Bonts never share personal things about the family until that person announces it publicly. I wouldn’t be surprised if they now mention it in the future since Chelsy has written about it publicly. 

[Giraffe]

19 minutes ago, MaryatHome said:

More wonderings: No mention of Chelsy's troubles (in the form of prayer requests) for either the Bon's  blog or on Allison's.  Allison's has gone silent since her baby was born last year, but her insta is fairly active and no nothing there.  I wonder what's up with that.

It's a very personal thing so I'm not surprised the families who aren't known for oversharing* haven't been open about it. It's good that they're leaving it to John & Chelsy to share how they want to. 

*in Jill R kind of ways

Edited March 24, 2022 by Giraffe
clarifying

[MaryatHome]

19 minutes ago, Giraffe said:

It's a very personal thing so I'm not surprised the families who aren't known for oversharing* haven't been open about it. It's good that they're leaving it to John & Chelsy to share how they want to. 

*in Jill R kind of ways

I don't disagree about the privacy issue, and fully support that.  I was just mildly surprised that neither have said anything since C posted this week.  Truth be told, I'm kind of surprised that the Maxwells haven't either, because they did share what was authorized with AM and with baby M's story.

[Giraffe]

1 minute ago, MaryatHome said:

I don't disagree about the privacy issue, and fully support that.  I was just mildly surprised that neither have said anything since C posted this week.  Truth be told, I'm kind of surprised that the Maxwells haven't either, because they did share what was authorized with AM and with baby M's story.

IMO this is why I they didn't share - it seems like Chelsy needed time to adjust to the news. She may have wanted to do it with just John and people closest to her for a while. 

[Coconut Flan]

That and the Maxwell's have mostly shut down the blog.  

[sleepygirl1]

Wow all those health issues compiling on top of each other. I can’t imagine what she’s going through with three small children. On the bright side this may slow her down.

[anachronistic]

My own mom is currently at a siblings house to help out because business trips are a Thing again and my sibling-in-law needs help with the 3 kids. Because 3 kids is a LOT. The JohnMaxwells must have had/have help and a lot of it, maybe from their church? I don’t know. But to me all of those kids are still babies and Madeline is still an infant. 
 

This is such enormous news that I’m going to be the first one to comment on how, yay, Madeline appears to be wearing almost exclusively pants. Pants with a bow the size of Nebraska on top but still pants. Tiny steps, right?

Despite that verse about training up a child/they won’t depart from it, one of my siblings is up to date on all medical stuff and the other hadn’t been to a doctor or dentist in *8 years*. (No, the family won’t ever let them live this down, nope, no chance.) Their spouse told them that they couldn’t see their new baby until they’d gone and that was what finally spurred it….and they were fine, no problems at all. So it’s possible to go without medical care, just eating well, exercising, brushing your teeth and having a huge dose of good luck. If Chelsy is the only Bont to be seriously ill as an effect of this neglect, it’s likely the family won’t see a pattern and will continue on as they’ve been doing. Idiots.

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, anachronistic said:

My own mom is currently at a siblings house to help out because business trips are a Thing again and my sibling-in-law needs help with the 3 kids. Because 3 kids is a LOT. The JohnMaxwells must have had/have help and a lot of it, maybe from their church? I don’t know. But to me all of those kids are still babies and Madeline is still an infant. 
 

This is such enormous news that I’m going to be the first one to comment on how, yay, Madeline appears to be wearing almost exclusively pants. Pants with a bow the size of Nebraska on top but still pants. Tiny steps, right?

Despite that verse about training up a child/they won’t depart from it, one of my siblings is up to date on all medical stuff and the other hadn’t been to a doctor or dentist in *8 years*. (No, the family won’t ever let them live this down, nope, no chance.) Their spouse told them that they couldn’t see their new baby until they’d gone and that was what finally spurred it….and they were fine, no problems at all. So it’s possible to go without medical care, just eating well, exercising, brushing your teeth and having a huge dose of good luck. If Chelsy is the only Bont to be seriously ill as an effect of this neglect, it’s likely the family won’t see a pattern and will continue on as they’ve been doing. Idiots.

Chelsy has been wearing pants since getting married and wore them at times before marriage. Nathan’s girls also wear pants and we know the Max daughters now wear them too. The only person I would be surprised to wear pants is Anna Marie. She loves her frumpers.

[johnhugh]

And Chris has a bit of a frumpier fetish.

[DonutWench]

I'm no Maxwell stan, but after reading all that I feel nothing but compassion for Chelsy. That's an enormous amount of traumatic things for anyone to go through, let alone someone so young with three young babies and added frustrations that having Steve Maxwell as a father-in-law must pile on. I hope she gets the care she needs, that John is super-supportive and helpful, and that she ends up healthy and happy on the other side. It also seems like she's pretty close to Sarah, so I hope their friendship is a source of comfort, relief, and joy right now.

 Yeesh.

[Bluebirdbluebell]

7 hours ago, DonutWench said:

I'm no Maxwell stan, but after reading all that I feel nothing but compassion for Chelsy. That's an enormous amount of traumatic things for anyone to go through, let alone someone so young with three young babies and added frustrations that having Steve Maxwell as a father-in-law must pile on. I hope she gets the care she needs, that John is super-supportive and helpful, and that she ends up healthy and happy on the other side. It also seems like she's pretty close to Sarah, so I hope their friendship is a source of comfort, relief, and joy right now.

 Yeesh.

Steve is bad, but Marlin Bontrager is much worse. Teri and Steve were at least trying to last summer a little bit and they're older. 

John and Chelsy's kids should definitely worry about cardiovascular disease when they grow up. Cardiovascular issues on both sides of the family. Steve has definitely said his issues are genetic.

[jakesykora]

Very brief post w/ a picture of Chelsy and John saying the surgery was finally finished and "It took longer than the doctors expected but it was successful!!Thank you for your prayers!"

[theologygeek]

41 minutes ago, jakesykora said:

Very brief post w/ a picture of Chelsy and John saying the surgery was finally finished and "It took longer than the doctors expected but it was successful!!Thank you for your prayers!"

She looks good and her face has a good color to it.  I'm glad the surgery was successful.  I found myself thinking about her today and hoping that everything went well.