CarolMK

I finally got to watch this episode on Comcast on Demand and I have to say, I loved the party and think that the kids did a great job. Kelly gave them some advice but then they took the lead and made into a wonderful party for Gil. So nice that some of his old friends from college and high school were able to attend. I also like the fact that Kelly and Gil are sending some of their kids to college, unlike many other Gothard followers who seem to be dead set against the idea of higher education. That fact that both of them went is probably one reason they're fine with it for their own children. I liked the bed and breakfast place, too, It was a nice idea , especially since Kelly and Gil had never been to one before.

I agree that Jim Bob is a cheapskate through and through. I think I read awhile ago that the one reason that the Duggars used to get together to play broomball on Friday nights is because they were allowed to use the skating rink for free. Up until TLC had parties for the kids, the family had never once gone bowling or roller skating..I remember this because when James had the bowling party at 9 years old, they were asked who had bowled before and the only ones who raised their hands were Anna and Michelle, I think. Yes, it can be expensive when you have a lot of kids, but there are coupons and specials run by these places, surely the Duggars could have made bowling or skating a twice a year excursion for the family. When I remember how he said that he spent $100,000 on his failed run for Senate back in 2002 (or was it 2000) and there were 15 of them jammed into that small 3 bedroom , 2 bath house, you can see where his priorities lay..with himself and Michelle, not his kids.

Gil is turning 50? How much older is he than Kelly? I thought that there were only a year apart or so...isn't their youngest child 3 years old? How old was Kelly when he was born?

I like Josiah a lot, was very glad to see him back. I too like Grandma and think (btw she's 74 now) that she took over pretty much the entire laundry duty after her husband passed away. Grandma probably didn't realize how much the girls did in terms of cleaning, cooking and laundry and how little Michelle did until she moved in there with her husband as he was dying of cancer. I'm sure she does laundry to give the girls a break and doesn't mind, as well as feeling like she's contributing to the household.

After watching the whole episode, I actually felt like I was watching Cinderella escaping her life of drudgery in order to marry her Prince Charming. It's very sad to see how much work was heaped upon the older girls starting at a very young age. Jessa was only 17 years old when the whole family moved to Little Rock and she then had to take over the homeschooling in addition to her normal household duties. Jim Bob and Michelle make me literally sick. Their way of life is abusive to children, in my opinion. Now I can clearly see why Jessa was so eager to get married, she didn't have anything she was specifically working toward (like Jill was with becoming a midwife) and she knew her only way out was to marry a guy her parents approved of, no matter how young he was.

I'm wondering if Baby Dill will wait until Easter Sunday to enter the world. Didn't Jill say that April 5 was her alternate due date since most first babies are late?

I could only watch the first 8 minutes of this episode when my 17 year old son wandered in and wanted the tv. It was the part where Michelle was droning on about she didn't know who would tutor the kids after Jessa was gone..my son looked at Michelle and said that her voice sounded like his kindergarten teacher reading Green Eggs and Ham to the classroom. He also said the entire Duggar family smiles way too much, no one is that happy all of the time.

I vaguely remember Michelle saying something to the effect of having her cycle charted and posted on the fridge, of all places....maybe I'm dreaming but I swear I heard her say this or I read it in their first book (I never read the others). So all of the older girls must know a lot about fertile vs. non-fertile days. If Jessa and Ben want to wait to have children but don't want to feel like they're going against God's wishes, the only way to avoid pregnancy is use natural family planning. I believe it involves also taking a daily morning temperature and charting it as well as the days between cycles. My Catholic sister in law and her husband are of the belief that they should not use birth control except for natural family planning, and only had 2 children in 25 years. It may be Jessa and Ben's secret plan that they aren't sharing with the public despite their talk about adopting and wanting to have more than 20 kids.

Of all the 19 kids in the Duggar family, somewhere along the way, one of them is probably going to get divorced at some point. Whether it's early in the marriage or after 30 years together, it will happen. I really wonder how Jim Bob and Michelle would react to an event like that, especially if they are still as involved in choosing the spouse for all of their kids in the future as they are now. Would they blame themselves in any way , and would they feel that their child was going to hell? What if one of their kids or spouses ended up using drugs or alcohol and developed a substance abuse problem? You can't "pray away" alcoholism or an addiction to painkillers.

Maybe Michelle is seeing some doctor in regards to her depression/anxiety, and is either over medicated or not on the right type of medication. I guess it's also possible that she's not medicated at all, but really should be. She doesn't seem to be the type of person who can cope with the family situation that they have created and her crazy eyes and increasingly high pitched voice are a reflection of that. Probably one more reason Jana is still home. If Jana leaves to get married, Michelle is going to have another nervous breakdown because no on in the household, including Michelle, can fill Jana's duties and be as loving as she is.

If Jill waits until Monday, her baby can share my birthday. Though she looks so big in her photos that she must be uncomfortable sleeping at night ..I'd hate to see her go 2 weeks past her due date. It happened to my niece last summer, pregnant for an extra 2 weeks in the hot July month in Texas..but her baby only weighed 7 lbs at birth, everyone was wondering if her doctor had miscalculated her due date. For all we know, Jill's baby could be a six pounder.

I would say Jessa might be pregnant at this point, but it's entirely possible they aren't actively "trying" to conceive at this point, no matter what they say publicly. Jessa grew up keeping track of her mother's cycle every month , so I'm sure she knows how to do natural family planning if they so desire. Also, Ben did not grow up with Gothardism, did he? Weren't his parents Vision Forum followers? There might well be some different beliefs that he grew up with compared to Jessa, as his family doesn't seem quite as extreme as the Duggars. As to the show lasting, I think 5 years as a regular series might be about right, but not 10. In 10 years, we might still have Jana and John David living at home, and 35 year old Jana sharing a bedroom with 15 year old Josie and the other sisters who never married. The married Duggar kids will be expecting a new baby probably about every 2 or 3 months at that point, and how special will each new baby be to the viewing audience? (not to mention Jim Bob and Michelle, who could easily end up with over 100 grandchildren!)

Reading over the last few posts, it's pretty scary to think about what happened to Jim Bob and Michelle when they joined Gothardism or however we want to define it. They certainly would not have had 19 children if they had not joined. To believe in it the way they do, it's like their minds were taken over completely and whoever they were in the past, they are not the same people at all today. Even more frightening to see is how they have complete control over all of their children, the ones at home and the ones who are married. I guess Josh is the only one who is semi-independent in that he's no longer working for his father in a home based approved business. Most of us want our kids to grow up and lead independent lives , even if we don't always agree with their choices. The Duggars might wind up with several kids who literally never leave home, staying on well into their 30's and 40's. That's a pretty scary aspect, too...is this what Gothard feels is right for every family to do? Keep adults dependent on their parents until they pass away in their old age?

What I thought was pretty funny is how much trouble they all had identifying the baby pictures. Either there are too many pics, or they don't look at them often enough. My husband is the youngest of 8 and while I realize it's not 19, his mom and dad plus siblings would know in a heartbeat who all the babies are, and there are 4 girls and 4 boys, all dark haired. I also noted that the question came up as to whether or not there will be a Bates-Duggar wedding. The kids seemed to think yes, and Gil said you'll just have to watch the show. Hmmm.

I am wondering if Dr. Now has had any 600 lb patients who live on their own, go to work, and don't have a caretaker/enabler to help take care of them. It seems as if the show is demonstrating that a person can't get to 600+ pounds by themselves, that they need a caretaker in order to do so and I wonder if that is the case. I do think Laura did extremely well towards the end, after getting therapy and a heart to heart chat with her mom. It seems like she lost over 100 lbs the final two months , is that a lot more than patients normally lose or was the timing/editing off?

I have a question....Jill is planning a home birth, but if a C-section was necessary, at what point is that decision made, and are they pretty close to a hospital? I'm asking because both of my sons were C-sections, ages 21 and 17 now. Both times I had a trial of labor and could not deliver even after pushing for several hours. The decision was made for the surgery the first time because of the 3 hours of pushing with no progress and the second time, it was due to my son't heart rate dropping dramatically..so there was a big hurry the second time around. What if there's an emergency during Jill's labor? Do midwives have access to all of the same equipment as a hospital does?

I can't figure out why Sammi is still living with the Gallaghers now. Wonder what the show plans to do with her. Frank's new friend seems like a storyline out of nowhere...really, I can't see where a young doctor would have the slightest interest in a creep like Frank. If she wants to get hard drugs, she could find them another way and also, I could see where she'd want to find maybe a clinical trial, too.Also, her punching out her high school competitor didn't make sense, why did the show go there at all? Gang symbols on Chuckie and Carl? What the hell? No matter what, these boys are supposed to be only 13 years old. It bugs the hell out of me that they're in jail. Lip and the professor....no. Give it a rest, Lip, if you have to have sex, bring back Amanda.

No, Michelle was born in 1966, so she's still 48. Jim Bob will be 50 this summer, I think maybe in June.

Those recipe cards are truly hilarious. I know my mom did WW back in the early 80/s but she never made anything weird that I recall. The hardest part that I recall for her was not being allowed to eat any bread (maybe one slice a day, or half slice) and being very grumpy from semi-starvation..the program was extremely restrictive back then. You had to drink 2 glasses of skim milk a day, it was part of the program, like it or not and her leader would tell people to hold their nose while drinking it if they couldn't stand it. One of the hardest parts about losing so much weight, in my experience, was people asking me about it so often. Going from a size 22 to a size 10 can kind of mess with your head a bit, especially since in the time I've lived in my town and my kids were little, I was pretty much size 18-22 that entire time. Sometimes I just didn't feel like talking about it and answering people's questions...and having to reassure people I didn't have cancer or was sick, I didn't have an eating disorder, etc. It was very weird, because it's not something you can hide from others..if you're suffering from depression or an anxiety disorder, you might very well be able to hide that, but weight is very visible, and people are extremely judgmental about it, both positive and negative. I had some of my friends' husbands check me out and make joking comments sometimes, and that was also extremely uncomfortable as well.

Good Lord..Windex? I attended Weight Watchers meetings from Jan 2009 to July 2011, dropped down from 232 to 144 lbs (made Lifetime in Dec 2010) and stopped attending meetings when I kept gaining after I got to my lowest weight ..it was like I had been starving the entire time and I couldn't control myself anymore with the point counting, and restrictive eating, However you want to view it, counting points, weighing food, etc. is a form of restriction and it made me very, very depressed after awhile..I had to walk away, stop weighing myself, stop all forms of counting, etc. Shortly thereafter, my father passed from cancer, my mother became seriously ill, my younger son was struggling a lot with his grades in high school, and I regained 70 lbs in 3 years. Lately I've been doling online tracking via MyFitness Pal and wearing a FitBit charge...it's helped me lose about 10 lbs in 3 months, and I'd like to lose 50 more but realize it might not be realistic at my age (51). Nobody ever used Windex as far as I know in sitting through over 100 meetings!.

Does anyone think that we'll see a special episode very soon after Jill has the baby, or will it be months later? I know we did with Michelle at least once..with Jordyn, I think they filmed her birth and aired the episode 4 or 5 days later. I honestly can't remember how soon the show aired the birth of Anna's kids though.

Does anyone think that the Bates family will await to announce her engagement on the television show, or will Kelly announce it on their blog? Poor Brandon, even though he has finished school several months ago, it seems like he's being pushed really hard toward marriage to Michaella as soon as possible. He's not "allowed" to wait two or three years after college the way most young people do in the real world to get married.

I think when these two get married, they'll move far away from her family. Isn't he from Michigan? I predict that's where they'll end up if he is. I'm sure he has no interest in having the Bates family around in his business constantly.

I hate to keep comparing the Bates to the Duggars, but overall, I thought that the kids really did seem to enjoy the aquarium and the beach, more so than I've seen the Duggars when they did field trips with their kids..half the time, the older ones looked bored. I also like the way Kelly and Gil talk to the camera, they don't seem to be nearly as obnoxious as Jim Bob and Michelle with their constant talk about their values and also Jim Bob's goofiness. Nice to see that Gil is a secure enough man that he doesn't need to smooch in front of his kids every 3 minutes, either. I agree with everybody who noticed that Kelly is a natural mom/grandmom, holding the baby. Loved seeing that. One question, where was Michaela? Still at her grandparents or did she have to return home to work, too, at her nanny job?

Is it possible that due to such excessive weight (Joe is one of the heaviest people we've seen, starting at 792 pounds) that he has an excess of estrogen and a lack of testosterone from it? Also, in regards to the top weight a person won't cross over before they start dieting/exercising, for pretty much all of the people featured on this show, they don't have any idea what they weigh..because scales sold in stores don't exceed 350 lbs, or do they? Mine won't exceed 300. And if they aren't weighing themselves and don't really seem to have a handle on how much they are eating then there is no limit that they are even aware of. Pretty much all of the patients have looked shocked when they found out what they weighed. Back in the days when I was attending Weight Watchers meetings, they emphasized to us that we should weigh ourselves once a week, and it was required to have a weekly weigh in at the meetings as well. Some weeks went a lot better than others, but I don't think anyone attending was shocked to find out they weighed about 600 lbs.There was one man who weighed about 400 lbs when he started the program, and he did very well on it..losing about 50 lbs the first month and then about 40 the second. He moved out of our area after his third month and i remember how much everybody was cheering him on at the meetings, especially since at the time he was the only man attending.