'A New Baby' Recap

Counting On "A New Baby"

-->

• Jill and Jana are over at Jessa’s house. “Compared to my first pregnancy, this time it’s gone by a lot faster,” says Jessa, who is three weeks away from her due date. The sisters listen to the heartbeats of both Jessa and Jill’s babies. Jill is about 13 weeks along and is already feeling her baby kick.
• “Knowing that I’m going to walk through this whole labor and delivery thing all over again…I’m not really looking forward to the process,” says Jessa, who had a long and difficult labor with Spurgeon that resulted in an emergency trip to the hospital after the baby arrived.
• On another day, Jill and Jessa go house hunting. The Seewalds are outgrowing their two-bedroom place, and the Dillards need a home base for when they come back home to Arkansas for visits.
• “I actually really, really love having a small house,” says Jessa. “But practically speaking…it will be a good idea to have a little bit more space.”
• The sisters visit “the Bennett house,” a home that Jim Bob just purchased. “Looks like it’s ready for Halloween,” says Jessa. The house, which used to be owned by family-friend Grandma Bennett, has a huge indoor pool in the middle and needs lots of work. Neither of the girls is eager to move into it. 
• Meanwhile, Joy and Austin are in Fayetteville flipping Austin’s fifth house, with Austin’s dad as their chaperone. “Joy is amazing,” says Austin. “She can do just about anything, and if she doesn’t know how to do it, she can learn really quick. She’s such a diligent worker. She’s very thorough.”
• “I’ve learned that he cannot do two things at once,” says Joy of Austin, laughing.
• On another day, while Austin is at the house alone, Jim Bob comes over for a tour, and Austin asks for his blessing to propose.
• Jim Bob pauses, says a few words about Joy and Austin’s relationship, and tells Austin how highly Joy and all the Duggars think of him. “You have Mom and I’s blessing,” he finally says. Austin wants to sell the house before he pops the question.
• Later, Jana, Jill, Jessa, Joy, and some of the little ones video chat with Jinger. Jill asks Jinger if she’s pregnant, and she looks at her sisters with a blank stare. “Not that I know of,” she says. “No, we’re not.” Jessa says she had told the girls not to ask.
• Jana comes over to Jessa’s house to help pull all her newborn stuff out of storage and prepare for the home birth. “I think there could be some jealousy issues with Spurgeon when this new baby comes,” says Jana. “He’ll have to learn to share.”
• Back at the big house, Sierra comes over to host Jessa’s baby shower, which will be attended by more than 100 guests. (They didn’t ask ladies to RSVP, so they aren’t quite sure how many will show up.)
• Rather than bring gifts for her, Jessa has requested that guests bring donations for Loving Choices pregnancy center. Friends come over to help the Duggars make food and put up decorations. Even some of the boys pitch in.
• The guests arrive, and the party beings. “It is very likely that my three older sisters and I could be pregnant at the same time,” says Joy.
• Instead of playing games, the guests put together gift bags for the moms at Loving Choices. Jessa and Ben know that their baby is a boy, as do Jana and Joy. Joy says she told Austin, and Jana says she told someone but won’t say who.
• Later, several of the siblings hang giant plastic bags filled with balloons (one of pink balloons and one of blue) from the ceiling for the gender reveal.
• Jessa and Spurgeon video chat with Jinger, who is helping Jeremy start a Spanish ministry at their church. “I don’t think I’ll be video chatting while she’s in labor,” says Jinger. “That’s not quite my thing.”
• Jessa, Ben, and Spurgeon go to Tacos 4 Life for a family date night. The Seewalds say they plan to transfer to the hospital if the labor goes as long as it did last time. 
• Jessa's water breaks at 11pm, four days after her due date. A few hours later, Jill, Michelle, and Jana head over to assist, as does an additional midwife. 
• This delivery is much quicker than Spurgeon's. When Henry arrives around 4:30am, both Jessa and Ben start crying. The emotions continue while Jessa goes through post birth, as Ben prays that they won't have to transport to the hospital. Everything ends well, and Spurgeon surprisingly sleeps through the entire birth. 
• The next morning, Jessa and Ben share the gender with Justin. Back at the Duggar house, everyone makes their guesses, and Justin pulls the cord that releases the blue balloons. "I was kind of having some fun with keeping it to myself for a second," says Justin. Unfortunately, the whole bag of balloons falls, but the moment is still exciting. 
• Spurgeon meets his brother when he wakes up later that morning. The introduction doesn't go so well, and Spurgeon seems to be a little upset that Mommy is holding another baby. But the Seewalds are confident that the boys will be good friends. 
• "This home birth experience was the ultimate," says Jessa. "Not that I didn't wail and scream a whole lot, but there were no complications..."
• That afternoon, the Duggars come over to meet the baby. Jessa and Ben decide on the name Henry Wilberforce about three days after the birth.