Abbie Duggar is heading into the home stretch of her first pregnancy.
Based on what she and husband John David have said in the past, it sounds like Abbie is about to hit her third and final trimester.
This is obviously a very exciting time for the couple, but it's also been a very frightening time of late.
We'll let John David explain why.
“It hit her hard, and she was down for probably seven weeks with severe morning sickness,” the father-to-be very recently explained to Us Weekly.
What happened to poor Abbie?!?
“She got diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum, and she was hospitalized a couple times," the 29-year old Duggar family member continued.
YIKES, right?
Hyperemesis gravidarum is sometimes shortened to just "HG."
It's a pretty broad pregnancy complication that is characterized by severe nausea, vomiting, weight loss, and possibly dehydration. Women who suffer from it may also even faint on occasion.
As far as we can tell, it has no bearing on the health of the baby in the womb. Thank goodness.
John David went on to tell the aforementioned tabloid that Abbie has had to see numerous doctors to assist with this situatiob.
"We made multiple visits to the ER for dehydration," he said. "She couldn’t eat, pretty much, or drink, or anything. So she was actually on IVs and had IVs at home. So that was a pretty scary time."
Very scary, we'd have to imagine.
At least Abbie can take comfofrt in having a loving and attentive husband at home.
“I keep her water filled up, and her snacks for her,” John David says to Us Weekly, adding:
“I keep her eating and just comfortable. Anything I can get for her, I try to. I run to the store, [get] whatever she needs, just keep her as comfortable as possible when she’s feeling bad.”
Abbie also spoke to the publication and gushed over how her husband once went to the supermarket for a heat pack at 11 or 12 p.m.
“He said, ‘No, you need this. I want to go get it for you,’” she recalled. “He’s cooked for me. He's cleaned. He’s just been an angel.”
It's here where we do need to jump in and say that husbands should always cook and clean and help around the house and that the Duggars clearly have an antiquated notion of how marriages work.
And of the role women ought to play in society in general.
But that's a point likely best left for another time.
If hyperemesis gravidarum sounds familiar, it might be because another mom who married into a famous family was plagued by the condtion during her pregnancies.
The British press spilled a lot of ink over Kate Middleton's "severe morning sickness," but they often failed to properly identify it as HG.
That may have been an attempt to downplay the suffering endured by the Duchess of Cambridge.
The UK tabloid media is sort of evil like that.
In this case, we're just thrilled Abbie is feeling a little bit better.
She and John David got married November of 2018 and announced they were expecting this past August.
“We are on Cloud 9 about welcoming our own little Duggar into the world,” the Counting On stars told Us in a statement.
They added at the time:
“It really is amazing to think about being parents and having our own child to raise. We are thankful that God has blessed us with this new life and we look forward to taking on this new adventure!”
We probably don't need to tell you that the Duggars much regard procreation as their primary reason for being.
As such, these are especially exciting times within the Counting On clan.
2019 marked the beginning of a full-on Duggar baby boom, and several women in the family are either currently or just recently welcomed new bundles of joy.
We wish Abbie and John David all the best as they approach the challenges of parenthood together!
