Jessa Seewald (née Duggar) revealed via Instagram she’s expecting her sixth kid with husband Ben Seewald.
The reality TV star, 32, posted a photo of her holding three black and white printouts of her ultrasounds, with the caption, “Halfway to holding you in our arms!” implying she’s already several months pregnant.
Jessa and hubby Ben, 29, are already the parents of five children: Spurgeon, 9, Henry, 8, Ivy, 5, Fern, 3, and George, just over a year old. The news of their latest pregnancy has the couple excited and nervous, especially after the tragic miscarriage Jessa suffered the year before their youngest was born.
Before welcoming their latest little one, Jessa made a similar post about her pregnancy with George, writing, “Every heartbeat heard, every ultrasound seen, every appointment with a good report … the worries fade a little bit more.”
“YOU ARE SO, SO LOVED, my little one #rainbowbaby.”
The young couple weren’t actually planning for their fifth, though. “After our loss last year, we sort of thought we might take a break and not get pregnant for a while, but lo and behold, our surprise baby was on the way. We found out in April maybe,” Jessa said in a YouTube Q&A in December 2023, just a few weeks before welcoming George. “It’s crazy the way things worked out. We couldn’t have planned the timing this way if we tried.”
Despite the “surprise,” a big family was always the plan for the couple. Jessa, herself the fifth kid of 19 total from parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, has been open about her desire for a similarly huge brood — though maybe not quite that large.
“We both want to have a big family,” she said of her plans with Ben. Her life, along with her parents’ and siblings’, was chronicled for years on their TLC show 19 Kids and Counting, which ran from 2008 until its cancellation in 2015.
The two tied the knot in 2014, after Jessa’s then-fiancée Ben underwent the gauntlet that is the Duggar family. “The Duggar family gets asked a lot of questions,” he admitted. “A lot of times we take it as a lesson, and we ask other people who are older and wiser than us to share wisdom with us about relationships. It’s an important thing.”
Hubby Ben, an ordained pastor, has also been vocal about how much he loves parenting and being a father. “There’s a lot of things that are awesome about [being a dad],” he said. “Having your own little guy, and just the privilege of raising a little kid. It’s a huge responsibility and a huge blessing at the same time.”
In addition to the five biological children the couple shares plus the one on the way, Ben’s also discussed his desire to adopt in order to add to their constantly growing family.
“Kids are so important. We hope to adopt a lot of kids. If God blesses us with biological kids of our own, it’s not going to quench our desire to adopt,” the expecting father said.
