Speculations of Anna Duggar of "19 Kids and Counting" fame being pregnant gained traction during the weekend when the mother of three was seen wearing an over-sized cardigan in the family's Thanksgiving video.
Anna has never hidden her desire to expand her family, and last week's episode saw Anna taking a pregnancy test to confirm whether she and Josh were expecting a fourth child. Although the test was negative, she expressed a desire to keep trying for another baby to join Mackynzie, 5, Michael, 3, and Marcus, 1.
"My heart is definitely to leave the size of our family in God's hands but I'm the fifth born so that's at least a good start," Anna said in last week's episode. "Maybe God is giving us a space because next we're going to have twins."
Meanwhile, Jill Duggar, who is pregnant with her first child, shared pictures of her growing baby bump in a new photo posted on her Instagram account, and counted the baby as one of her most important blessings of the year.
"So many blessing to count this Thanksgiving... Mama Cathy is well, best hubby in the world, expecting a son, God's mercies are new every morning! #happythanksgiving," Jill wrote on her photo-sharing account.
Sadly, the Duggars' plan to expand their family have met with severe criticism from several quarters. A number of netizens have expressed their displeasure at Duggar women thinking only about "getting married and breeding."
"In the beginning God told us to go forth and multiply. Now with the world being over populated , God in his wisdom let man invent birth control. What's with this family and their obsession to see how many babies they can make?" -- Marcia Steinbach
"The duggers poor daughters seem to be raised thinking womens only role in life is to be married and pregnant. I have yet to see one of the girls express a want for higher education or their parents push toward that." -- Shannon Kekic
"What is with this family??? Are these parent teaching their children to be married young and go out there and be fruitful and multiple??? What ever happened to being married and learn to know each other and travel before settling down and start a family. These kids just barely had a short courtship and now they are producing "honeymoon babies"???" -- Josie Vazquez