cereality

So apparently Hazel is also in the NICU per Kelton’s IG. He says Josie will provide the full update. I had a feeling bc the pic w Katie was with Hazel in those eye goggles they put on kids when they need to put them in those lighted incubators like for jaundice. Kelton says she’s recovering quickly so it doesn’t sound like a Jadon type of thing. What’s going on though?? You have to wonder if the moms having Covid impacted the pregnancies.

Well hopefully she's left bc her IG post says exactly where the child was born, who the dr. was etc. These girls do all rush home the moment after they give birth, even if they have underlying issues, so if she was born 6/14 they may be home already -- as her IG post also talks about meals being delivered and I'd imagine those are after birth though maybe not. I think Alyssa with her heart condition has run out of the hospital and that office like birthing center within hours (for the birth center - that may have been before the heart problem was known) and then next day with the latest kid. They may have to mix up where they deliver the next kid. I know she says she delivered at a hospital birth center (sounds like a hospital owned center anyway), but did she actually deliver in an exam room? The computer and cabinet right behind Kelton don't look comfortable at all, not to mention her bed looks like an exam table not a hospital bed. And usually the wall behind the patient at a hospital has a thousand different plugs and ports -- even if not in use, it's all built in equipment just in case a patient were to need O2 etc.

Can someone tell me what our favorite felon (or alleged felon I should say) has been up to? Any court hearings since his bond hearing that made him Mrs. Reber's problem? Is trial set or any other pre trial court dates? Has Anna been visiting? Have they brought the kids? I basically haven't seen anything since the bond hearing so I'm curious where this is at.

A&J have said before that John absolutely cannot and does not take time off in the summer because summer is primetime for HVAC in Florida. John has said very honestly that he works for his family's HVAC business but it is a small business and if someone calls you with an HVAC issue in heat of the summer and you can't get out a tech out there today/tomorrow, guess what they're moving on and calling another company and you lost that business. So they're very careful to have all their techs working all summer, working overtime, and not having them take time off for whatever they want to do with their families. I feel like a couple summers ago Alyssa went up to the Carolinas to stay with her grandparents and ended up staying a few weeks w/ Grandma Jane/Papa Bill and John came up on like one random Sunday and that was it. It seems like the sons in law at least have some worth ethic.

Yeah no posts since Thursday and no Sunday church pics from either her or Kelton talking about how blessed they are? Yeah she's delivered. I imagine it's about magazine timing now -- I also wonder if you don't want to break the news on the weekend bc you get less eyes on those websites and our own Insta. They may be waiting until Monday. There have been sizeable delays from this family lately -- Jadon's birth was announced 2 days later (though I get that maybe they didn't have the bandwidth with the NICU) but also Nathan and Katie’s engagements were both announced almost a week after they happened which to me screams magazine/website/insta timing to get the most people viewing so that next time the magazine is like yeah their last birth/engagement got x hits of course we'll cover the next one.

I think that's exactly what this is. Lots of places in the house are still empty -- family room, rest of the kitchen etc. But the places that are furnished are totally Ikea type cheap furniture -- because she posts links to where she buys everything as her leg humpers are desperate to know where she buys all her stuff. The rug is from like rugs.com; the table is from some "furniture mart" type of place. The weird looking cart on the side with a few mugs/plates/cookie jars are all from places like Hobby Lobby, Home Goods etc. Like a grownup with money buys a sideboard/china cabinet, not a way too small bar cart for a formal dining room. They are furnishing their house as if they are playing house. Though I think that's basically what her sisters Erin/Carlin do as well -- cheap furniture with abundant amounts of crafts with cheesy sayings and wedding and family pics everywhere and then every few years you change out the cheesy crafts and wedding pics for different cheesy crafts and wedding pics, paint the crappy furniture and now you've "redecorated." And I've never lived in Fla. but my understanding was even inside the house you get bugs due to the heat/humidity and bc of how much doors open and close with kids running to and from the pool; why would you be setting mugs and plates out in the open like that!? J has said before that they both have trouble sticking to a budget and they both like to buy impulsively (I'm guessing clothes/shoes for A and the girls; and prob electronic gadgets for J) so I imagine if they have a goal of save $x for furniture in the next 3 months, that isn't happening as money is squandered on other things like random crafts and blowing up pictures of themselves to decorate.

Yeah Z&W's IG yesterday made it seem like there was a ways to go. He came off the vent sounded like on Friday night. Then they said they'd do an xray sometime Saturday/Sunday to see if his collapsed lung is healed enough to take the chest tube out -- so maybe that happened today? Then the central line needs to come out. They said these were the big 3 things -- vent; chest tube; central line -- but then after that there's a number of smaller milestones he needs to meet -- presumably they meant he needs to meet those to go home. He was born 6/7 -- it's going to be at least a week in the NICU if he can meet all of those next steps by tomorrow, which probably isn't super likely.

Alyssa seems obsessed with the picture perfect house and living out the fantasy of all the nice things she didn’t have growing up, function be damned. Formal dining room with a glass table and all white upholstery in a home with 4 young kids, check. Coffee bar area for her and John, check. Informal kitchen dining table with kiddie placemats you can wipe down so kids can eat inside when it’s a 105 degree heat index in Fla., nope. A family room with furniture, nope. I mean it’s clear they can’t afford a house and all new furniture all at once but priorities?! Even as of 2 wks ago when C&E visited and then she planned her dumb anniversary, the family room was EMPTY. Like no furniture - bc that’s where the “chiropractor” set up her table. Yet the formal dining room is done?! I assume they put the one couch they had upstairs and now need family room furniture but wouldn’t it make sense to have someplace for the family to sit and also to eat before you ordered your picture perfect formal dining room furniture?!

It’s east Tenn so the drs from there are prob used to this, but I can only imagine the residents etc who may not be from Tenn but are just training at this hospital. “We think Jadon will be in the hospital for X more days so we recommend you two get vaccinated ASAP even today bc we can’t vaccinate him but you can protect him somewhat that way + some antibodies do pass in breast milk + we can protect him further with RSV shots before we discharge him” — “nah thx for all you did with the chest tube and all but we don’t need them new vax and we didn’t give our other kids RSV shots so he doesn’t need them, God will protect us . . . .” Uh ok well then why do you need a children’s hospitals services to begin with??

Didn’t even realize there were RSV shots? I bet a NICU baby who needed a chest tube/vent, going home to a house with 3 older siblings so likely to be subject to colds etc they catch, at a time when RSV is spreading prob does qualify. It might cost them something out of pocket but that type of security may be worth it. I wonder if they’d do it though esp if the older siblings, none of the nieces/nephews ever had those shots or will it be a - god will protect - thing.

And just saw an article on People.com of all places -- CDC has put out an alert as RSV is unusually wide spread right now in the southern states including Tenn. Something about how it hasn't circulated for a year so now that people are out and about circulation is spiking. I hope when Jadon is released to go home with these 2 idiots, they give very specific direction that they are to isolate in their home with just the 6 of them for 3 full months or whatever the "safe" period is for an infant. I'm thinking a baby with a lung issue bad enough for a vent and a chest tube should not be subject to G&K showing up with a van full of kids with Kelly squealing in the baby's face and the baby then being passed to all 97 aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews for pictures. W/r/t covid -- in a crowd that big, who knows who could be carrying what asymptomatically. W/r/t RSV -- it can present as just a cold but it tends to hit some infants really hard and they end up hospitalized and even as "just a cold" for a baby under 3-4 months, they land in the hospital for a spinal tap etc. just to rule everything out. I know the world is now largely open (not that it ever shut down for the Bates to begin with) but these aunts and uncles are literally all over the place and would not have the sense to be like um no I won't go over or I won't hold the baby, I was just in an airport, at a wedding, with Travis's 25 family members yesterday. I mean Katie is in NJ vacationing at the beach with Travis's family; Carlin and Evan go to Nashville every weekend and spend all their time there going out with dozens of friends and family to public venues like Top Golf; Nathan and Lawson are constantly flying to their gfs and then going out with them in Pa and Ca; Bobby and Kelton have jobs where they are in people's homes; Josie is up in people's faces doing their hair for weddings. Like the amount of geographic exposure they have is crazy -- which is their choice -- but let's not subject a sick newborn to it.

I'd be shocked if any of these people (save maybe Michael and Brandon who seem like they read/understand things) are vaccinated or are even planning to be vaccinated. As social media whorish as they all are, if even one of the siblings was vaccinated, you know we would have seen a selfie. I'm sure they're in the camp of NBD, it's just the flu, it's an untested vax, God will protect. I know he's not their family but is cut from the same cloth -- Evan's brother was making fun of people getting the vax . . . . For right now it may be ok in daily life (w/o a NICU baby) as they all had it and immunities are pretty strong, but natural immunity does wear off and yeah even though Z&W have had it, it's quite possible they could pick it up again/carry it to Jadon. Plus if they had it last Aug/Sept, the strains circulating now are different from back then. As for the hospital enforcing, I think I've seen some masks on their chins/in their hands. I have a feeling they probably mask up to enter the hospital and walk to the NICU and are probably still masked up when drs/nurses are near them giving them updates. But you know the minute the nurse walks away, masks come off bc come on they need perfect pics with Jadon. As much as hospitals are going to enforce their rules if they see you, they also can't be looking at you 24-7, some of it has to be you being the adult and the parent and being like there's a pandemic and I have a NICU baby, let's just be careful!? I wonder if NICU drs have suggested to Z&W that they must vaccinate -- even still it's only been 4 days; even if they listened to drs. and vaccinated the moment he went to the NICU (and I don't see that - I feel like they're prob still praying about it), the vax haven't kicked in yet in 4 days anyway.

FWIW 90% of the time she seems to feed those kids outdoors, where she can just hose down the table when they're down. On the rare days that they eat indoors, they're always on stools at the kitchen bar, not in the dining room. She likes to keep a pristine home -- 4 kids under age 6 and food don't mix with white upholstery. Seems like they are still buying furniture and they've said that they have to wait until things are in the budget, but their kitchen while small does have a nook off to the side. Put a kitchen table in there that's cheap and wipeable and feed your kids there and use it as the kids table for holiday meals. Then like most homes the formal dining room is for holidays when the kids are old enough not to be dropping food all over the chairs.

I think that's a huge part of it. People who are SO religious ultimately come back to -- God will provide. You KNOW if Whit wanted Z to quit the police force and he expressed any hesitation to her or Gil or said yeah but you know the health insurance is really good or the 401k has a crazy 7% match or whatever, you KNOW Gil would be like -- don't you trust God. Why do you need the BEST insurance or to save SO much for retirement as a mere 32 year old?? Go pray because you seem to have lost your faith . . . . For people like Gil and lots of others who feel that way, it doesn't matter HOW God provides, it's just that he does. Like many regular Americans would be like nope don't want to be uninsured or on Medicaid bc it doesn't give me much choice (or any choice) re specialists, what if we need one. People like this -- oh please a dr. is a dr., it doesn't matter. If you need an ultrasound for a gender reveal (bc why else would you need one), you'll go to one of them strip malls, you don't need them fancy OBGYNs at U. Tenn to tell you boy or girl; Dr. Vick is great, he's no different than than fancy Harvard Med educated dr. etc.

So last night Jadon's right lung collapsed and he's now on a vent and has a chest tube. Man I hope that kid is doing ok. Wonder what's causing all this?? Could Whit having had covid early in the pregnancy somehow have affected him -- though it was so early on that IDK if a kid even has lungs developed at that point. Was he born early? He came out at a decent weight - 7+ lbs. Doing better today per Z&W's Insta though I assume that's bc he's on a vent and chest tube. But hey the drs. and nurses are stopping to pray with Z&W so that's great . . . I know I know it's Tenn but 🙄

I agree they certainly aren't dirt poor. They aren't like the fundies we've seen over the years who clearly cannot feed their kids enough. But I do think they're paycheck to paycheck and things like insurance which are big costs in the US just aren't easy to purchase. I mean Erin/Chad live in a 2 room rental with 4 KIDS and some kids sleeping in roll out beds; you don't do that if your husband's contracting business and your retail shop are bringing in $$$$. John & Alyssa say money is tight and that they have a hard time budgeting and sticking to any type of budget. Evan openly says money is tight esp with a kid now, he's always looking for cheap deals/cheap fast food etc. Yet they all seem to have the nicest of stuff -- from iPhones to robot vacuums to Carlin today posting from some salon w/ some dye job that couldn't be that cheap (and it wasn't Katie nor Josie's old salon). I think their hawking of products on Insta gets them some free products esp for the kids. I think YouTube channels - which I'm surprised Z&W don't have one - generally pay about $3 to $5 per 1000 views. In a week where they can grab 75k views (which Evan & Carlin can sometimes; Alyssa's videos tend to be more like 20k), that's an extra $375 right there. I think that extra money is what pays for the constant phone upgrades, newest tech gadgets, nicer clothing for the wives etc. It also isn't shocking that the entire family seems to be carrying around Starbucks more often, carrying iPhones, dressing better etc. than when they were kids. When they were kids there was NO room for extras bc G&K were just worried about feeding and clothing 19. Now he has 7 kids off his payroll + Nathan/Law/Trace/Jackson/Warden/Isiah living at home but bringing in $$ (and I bet expected to buy their own clothes, phones, Sbux), he is only providing for 6 kids now. Add to that that a lot of their dinners out, date nights, trips, crazy engagement trips are comped for appearances on UPTv, of course they appear to be more well off. But it's appearances and this small potatoes stuff doesn't pay for big costs like health insurance or retirement savings etc. But hey I guess a huge % of Americans don't worry about that stuff, so why should the Bates.

They are ABSOLUTELY uninsured and/or (more likely) on Medicaid. Have you priced insurance lately for a family of 6 in a red state (not that blue states are so much better but there tend to be some more subsidies)? Insurance for ONE person can be easily $700-1000/mo. Insurance for a family is absolutely going to be double that -- so more like $1500-2000/mo. if you're lucky, it could be higher. That's IF you are honest and say you aren't at the poverty line. You really think he's paying 18k-24k in insurance yearly + paying a mortgage on that house + feeding 4 kids?? Come on. This is Gil's son. Gil the grifter. You KNOW Gil is paying him below the poverty line so as to make sure he can have access to Medicaid esp for the pregnant wife. Maybe he tops it off with a bit of cash on the side to Z but Gil also needs the money himself for the 10+ kids he has at home. As for UPTv paying $$$$ -- it's a low rated cable channel that lots of homes don't even get. And whatever $$$ they're paying needs to be split between G&K; Erin; Josie; Carlin; Z&W; Tori; Michael; Law; Nathan -- i.e. all the kids in Knox and I bet Law and Nathan demand their own cut, not just from G&K's share for the younger kids. As for the boutique making bank -- again split between Erin and Whit and Carlin -- and it's a limited type of market and now they pay rent and employees too. And even still you think the boutique is buying them 24k/yr in insurance? Besides Gil made statements when he was raising his own family -- you barter w drs you know for services (private practice fundies like Vick not so hospital drs); if all else fails you go to the ER, they can't turn you away. These are the statements of a man who is not a planner, who has raised his sons not to be planners -- even Z who had a steady paycheck/retirement/insurance, gave it up with a pregnant wife and 3 young kids at home bc planning isn't as important as being home to "invest in the kids' lives."

All these sisters are so comparative that you KNOW if Carlin ends up with the chunky daughter, she is NOT going to be pleased. Erin's kids are downright skinny; I do think Erin (and probably now Chad) makes actual home cooked meals and homemade type snacks too (bc let's be honest I think money is tight) so they eat enough, yet Chad's side of the family is stick thin; I saw a picture of his family once where the brothers were teenagers and were stick skinny - though they all appear to grow into regular size, so Chad's daughters will have that going for them in staying thin. Alyssa's kids probably ARE underfed with the muffin cups she puts out daily with a few pieces of cheese, pretzels, etc. for lunch so they'll stay skinny. Both Josie and Whit appear to have kids that were just never especially chubby babies and Whit's kids got even thinner as they got taller. Josie FWIW constantly shows videos where she's giving Willow pieces of chicken, beans, rice etc. for dinner so at least she's trying to put her on a regular/healthy eating path. Carlin and Evan OTOH are basically a bunch of teens raising a baby. They themselves consume a good amount of fast food, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're giving their kid a bit of that regularly so they don't have to bother making her something. And then constantly posting videos of giving her ice cream, sips of Sbux drinks, cake pops from Sbux etc. I believe she got a haircut the other day and was rewarded with an ice cream sandwich. Seems unnecessary - give her a sticker or something for a haircut or if you must give her an ice cream sandwich, can you not cut it so she gets a small piece, not an adult size serving? I feel like most people I know with kids these days went out of their way NOT to introduce a 1 yr old to sugar. While the kid was still relatively non opinionated and fully dependent on the parents for the first 12-24 months, that's when it was all about vegetables, chicken, rice, beans etc. -- so that when they hit 3 and are screaming for waffles daily, you at least know you gave them a good nutrition foundation for the first few years -- not cake pops and Sbux.

The situation Z&W are in right now with Jadon in the NICU for at least 2 days is the EXACT reason most people in America hold onto jobs with good benefits or if they want to leave such jobs think really really hard about insurance alternatives, timing of leaving etc. He left his cop job sometime before Sept of last year. They had had covid which he caught at work and Whit was already pregnant -- bc they talked about the fear of getting covid while she was pregnant. So it's not like he quit and THEN she got pregnant. They KNEW a kid was coming. He really couldn't have stayed with the sheriff's office from Sept 2020 to June 2021? Adults often stay 9 extra months at a job whether they want to or not because it's a good financial decision, even if it means that they can't "invest as much in their kids' lives as Gil did." We looked when this episode aired -- as a cop he had Tenn Blue Cross Blue Shield, a blue chip type of plan for $350/MONTH for a family of 5. That was CRAZY good. They clearly don't have insurance like that now because it'd be $2000+ per month to cover the whole family with that type of insurance. That's the type of insurance where they'd walk out of the hospital paying a $200 copay for all the care Jadon needs and that'd be it. I assume Whit (and prob Z too) is on Medicaid as he prob isn't making that much money on the books from Gil and the kid will be covered by Medicaid or some kind of plan for kids under the poverty line - which many states have. Medicaid type plans do have deductibles and out of pocket costs. I mean they aren't huge but often can be capped at a % of yearly pay etc. so I wouldn't be surprised that even with Medicaid/under the poverty line, this costs them more than it would have with Blue Cross 9 months ago.

How do we know what Kelton thinks? Did they do an IG live on this? He talks somewhere about his mom's epidural and how it caused her amniotic fluid embolism? Regardless while it's super sad about his mom and always will be, I hope he doesn't "deny" his wife pain relief because of what happened to his mom a decade ago at a different hospital. Like sure talk to the drs about it and about how you're super nervous, they'll walk you thru what causes whatever his mom's condition was and how likely it is NOT caused by an epidural, and will provide you reassurances on being super safe/only having an attending anesthesiologist to do the epi/whatever you need, but ultimately it is your WIFE's decision because she's the one enduring the pain and having a person come out of her, not you. IDK something about Kelton seems controlling though. IDK why I think that but I do. Maybe it isn't so much about his control but about how she seems 1000% invested in pleasing Kelton and would prob do what he preferred even as she endured pain and actual drs. with years and years of training told her it'd be ok to get an epidural.

Why is he nervous about epidurals because of his mother? I thought his mother did a home birth and something went wrong. I assumed at best she had a midwife etc., the way fundies do birth - wing it and hope for the best. Like I hadn’t heard what went wrong had anything to do with pain management at a major hospital. A place like UT does thousands of epidurals per month so yeah I hope she doesn’t suffer the contractions caused by the inducing drugs (which I’ve heard are much much stronger) without an epidural just bc of Kelton. Haven’t given birth myself but I’ve heard from friends that when they start talking about drugs to move a labor along, they automatically call an anesthesiologist, and if you then say you wanted to do it naturally, they heavily counsel against it.

Why didn't she do it 2 days ago? She and Whit could have given birth together and shared a post partum room. I mean isn't that the Bates' dream - as many people pregnant and birthing at the same time as possible so this literally could have been THE SAME TIME. Though I guess Josie uses U. Tenn not Vick so maybe they won't find it compelling to induce today bc OMG my sister in law is giving birth to grandchild 10001 and if I gave birth to 10002 today they'd have the same date and place of birth and it'd make mommy and God soooo happy, please???!

Agreed she is NOT an attractive kid. Fashionista Carlin may want to buy her some clothes that fit. She has the huge toddler belly which is fine but no shirt ever covers the belly. The video of Kelly and Carlin very obviously shows Kelly pulling down her shirt when C starts recording as the kid's entire belly was hanging out there. And way to get her hooked on whatever Starbucks drink they're drinking. Maybe it wasn't a coffee but even still is it necessary for a 1 yr old!?

Kelly and Carlin camped out on the roof of the parking garage across from Whit's hospital room window when she was giving birth!? And the construction workers working on the hospital roof thought they were insane and/or were somehow cheering for/flirting with the workers!? WTF is wrong with these people!? You've attended 600000 births of kids and grandkids. Starting probably next year when covid becomes less of an issue, you'll be back to attending another 10 births/yr. Is it THAT big of a deal that the couples that give birth in 2020-2021 get to do it without you peering at them? Not to suggest they could see anything but it seems unnecessary, intrusive, and lame to be watching the window of the hospital room and getting Z to bring the baby to the window etc. as if you've never seen a baby/there hasn't been a baby in your family in 50 years. And who does this on a 95 degree day with their own 1 yr old in tow!? And cue the posts from Kelly now -- she is soooooo grateful for the NICU staff caring for Jadon. And why the heck is it JadOn and not JadEn. I mean the name was big 15-20 years ago with the whole Jaden/Brayden/Zayden trend -- as Jaden's I know are now graduating high school. You've had 15 years to know how to spell it?!

So Jadon Carl (kid no. 4) was born on 6/7 but is in Tenn Children's Hospital bc his oxygen dropped so he is getting "treatment" to be strong enough to go home. Z&W are soooo thankful to the drs and nurses for working so hard to get their baby ready to go home blah blah. I do hope the kid is fine and this was just one of those things. But I kinda love how this family (all the Bates not just Z&W) is sooo against school or college bc you'd have to sit next to green haired people or working for others bc the could be non Christian heathens, yet when they need medical care to have kid #800000 or fix whatever is going on with kid #80000 they are SOOOO thankful for those green haired heathens who went to med school, nursing school etc. THEN it's ok to accept those people's services because it's about YOU and YOUR BABIES.