Twenty-year-old Joy-Anna Duggar is officially a mother.
The Counting On star and her husband, Austin Forsyth, welcomed their first child– a baby boy–on Friday, February 23. The couple had previously stated that they were waiting until the baby’s birth to find out the gender.
People broke the news that Joy and Austin chose the name Gideon Martyn Forsyth for their son. (This, of course, means that Joy’s nephew, Spurgeon, still holds the title for “Worst Name Bestowed On A Duggar Grandchild.”)
Baby Gideon, like his most of his Duggar family cousins, was a huge baby, weighing in at a whopping 10 lbs., 3 oz. and measuring 22 inches long!
“We are blessed beyond measure with the arrival of our son, Gideon Martyn Forsyth,” the couple told the magazine in a statement. “Looking at our child for the first time was such an incredible moment! God is so good, and we are so thankful.”
They also confirmed that Baby Gideon and Joy are both doing “excellent” after the birth.
In their interview with People, Joy and Austin did not elaborate on the birth; however, based on a photo that was previously being run with the story online (but has since been taken down), the baby appeared to be in a hospital bassinet, indicating that Joy had given birth in a hospital, or the baby had been taken to the hospital at some point following his birth.
Like her older sisters and sisters-in-laws, Joy seemed to be planning for a home birth. In a video posted by TLC a few weeks ago, Joy stated that they had their birth pool set up and their house cleaned out for the birth. (‘Counting On’ fans will remember that Joy’s older sisters Jessa Seewald and Jill Dillard have each had some brutal attempts at home births over the years.)
Joy’s cousin, Amy Duggar, revealed via an Instagram post that Baby Gideon was, indeed, born in a hospital.
Joy and Austin got married in May of last year, in an extravagant, 1,000+ guest hay-filled affair. It appears that Joy got pregnant almost immediately after the wedding (although some fans suspected that her conception date may have been before the wedding).
Jill, who was Joy’s “buddy team” leader growing up, posted a photo of Joy and the baby, along with a congratulatory note, to Instagram.
Congrats @austinandjoyforsyth on baby Gideon!! We are so happy for y’all. #anotherbuddyinourteam #favoritetia
Joy’s parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar posted a statement of congratulations on their family’s website.
“We are so thrilled for Joy and Austin! Children are a blessing from the Lord and we know that will be such great parents. We can’t wait for this little one to grow up around all of these other grandbabies. We are so blessed and our hearts are overflowing,” Jim Bob and Michelle wrote.
Baby Gideon is the Duggars’ 10th grandchild. Their oldest son, Josh Duggar and his wife Anna have five kids (three boys and two girls), while Jill and her husband Derick have two boys. Jessa and her husband Ben also have two boys.
Joy’s older brother Joseph Duggar and his new wife Kendra are currently expecting a boy. Her older sister Jinger Vuolo and her husband Jeremy are also expecting, but they have not announced the gender of the baby publicly. Both babies are due this summer.
Anyway, this will likely be the first of many children for Joy and Austin, who previously stated that they plan to leave the amount of children they have “up to God.”
“We want as many as the Lord thinks we can handle,” Joy told the magazine earlier this year.
Watch Joy and Austin talk about the last part of Joy’s pregnancy in this video:
(Photos: TLC, Instagram)
41 Responses
Congratulations, Joy & Austin!
That’s why they had to move the wedding up. Joy-Anna was already pregnant, and they wanted to cover it up.
Had to be a C-section. Baby has a nice round head perfect head.
I just had my third baby and I actually had like 7 ultrasounds. Not high risk, just apparently what is becoming normal? My friend is pregnant and same thing even though she’s seeing a different doc. And yes they told me my baby would be 7lbs or more and she was barely 6. So them having ultrasounds wouldn’t help, especially where they wouldn’t get induced anyway.
It’s so weird how they always try to hide the fact that they (always) end up having to go to the hospital during or immediately after the birth. Why are they ashamed of using a hospital? Not every kid has to been born in a manger you know.
10 lbs., 3 oz.
Wow must be like a clowns sleeve down there.
Now wonder she looked so big straight away, she had a giant baby.
Gideon is a beautiful name. Poor Spurgeon!
I feel trapped just reading about these girls and this family…. and I’m a 27 year old woman.
This family is insane. They literally encourage teen pregnancy and teen marriage. Gideon is an awesome name though.
10 pounds?!? RIP bajingo… yes that has a double meaning
Anyone else think these Duggar girls are in a panic? They all keep popping out boys, without any girls who is going to help care for all the other babies that are to inevitably follow?! ? I’d bet almost anything that Jinger will have a girl though.
I was just thinking they have a lot of boys! It’s gross that the only one with girls is Josh… and we know what he does to little girls. Pedophile creep!!!
Bet that was a “Joy” to push out with no drugs!! Jeezus Gawd (Leah) how’s your vagina ?
With a 10lb kid no doubt she needed to be seen during or after giving birth.
seems like you don’t know much about the human body. a friend of mine just had her second baby and second home birth, attended by midwives. 10lbs 3oz, no tearing or hemorrhaging or any complications.
Well a round of applause for your friend’s super vagina
y’all are so petty, it’s unreal
And tacky. You forgot to add how tacky they are.
My mum is 5 foot 2 and was a size 2 and her vagina certainly wasnt built to give birth to a 3 week premmie 11 pound baby girl…2 days of labor and collapsed lungs before doctors’ did an emergency caesarian! Obviously, there are many factors that can determine the course of labor and delivery…not just the elasticity of our vagina lol
Why are these Duggar babies so monsterous?!?
Maybe because they don’t do traditional ultrasounds?
Why would getting an ultrasound affect the size of the baby?
Ultrasounds are horrible predictions of birth weight – by 36 weeks they have an error range of 1.5 lbs in either direction. With my first my 20 week US predicted a 10 lb baby – my 7lb10oz full term baby was not anywhere near that at (born just short of 39 weeks. With my second I had an US about three days before birth and again it was about a lb too high.
This!!! They scared the shit out of me with my first kid; said he was measuring too small and his arms and legs weren’t measuring proportional to his body. Delivered a 7 1/2lb baby at 41 weeks, healthy as can be. Ultrasounds can be sooo wrong.
How many ultrasounds you have, does not determine how big the baby will be. It’s common sense.
Also, you don’t just get however many ultrasounds you want. If you are not high risk, you usually only get a dating scan around 20 weeks. Unless you opt to pay for a 3D scan.
Dating US must be done before 12 weeks, you are thinking of the anatomy scan at 20 weeks which is important to make sure baby’s heart and other organs are growing well and blood is moving through all 4 chambers without any sign of leakage.
That’s what I was thinking, used the wrong word lol ? Where I’m from in Canada, we only get that 20 week scan unless high risk, or you don’t know how far along you are.
My daughter was 7lbs 9.5oz and my son was 8lbs 8oz. Both were predicted to be 9-10 pounds. I had four ultrasounds with both (three is standard here, one each trimester, but I had one to check my daughter because I was swelling bad and an extra one to see if my son had flipped).
why dont any of them say..i only want 2 or 3 instead of ‘leaving it up to the lord’?
Because they don’t believe in birth control so unless they either become A+ experts of the NFP method or stop having sex altogether once they have the amount of children they want, then they don’t really have a choice.
Doesn’t matter, even if they only wanted 2 or 3 and even plan on doing anything about it, they certainly can’t SAY that
Indeed. JimBlob’s head would explode! I’d like to see that, though 😛
She looks haggered in the picture. Based on the photo of him in a hospital blanket, wondering if they also put off using an actual doctor and hopsital staff till the point of danger.
She looks like she pushed out a 10 pound baby… Why does society want women to look 100% immediately after giving birth?!?
I’ve had 2 kids and I’m sure I looked tired as hell after pushing them out. The last thing I wanted to do was put on makeup. I held my babies and was happy they were healthy. Which is what most women do after childbirth!
She looks so young! And already has a child and as you said, one of many. I don’t think she would be one of those having so many children if she had a choice but seeing how fast she got pregnant and if it goes on, she can easily exceed her mother. Ugh, poor Joy with those 10-pound babies.
Anyone else think she probably conceived beind the altar at the church, 30 seconds after her wedding?
She almost literally would have. A due date calculator says she would’ve gotten pregnant like right on her wedding day or 5 minutes later.
It’s like these chicks are constantly ovulating, I swear… ?
JimBob probably plans his daughters’ wedding dates around ovulation?
I’m glad other people feel the same way about Jim Bob as I do
Well they probably do try to plan it far from the onset of a period given that they will be having sex for the first time afterwards. And that would put it around the time of ovulation.