Counting On - Josiah Duggar & Lauren Swanson Open Up About Life As New Parents To Daughter Bella

Source: Instagram

Counting On stars Josiah Duggar and Lauren Swanson are loving life as new parents to their daughter, eight-month-old Bella Milagro. After losing their first pregnancy to a miscarriage, the couple is absolutely in love with their “rainbow baby,” and parenthood has turned out to be better than they could have dreamed of.

Duggar and Swanson recently posted three sweet photos of their daughter on their joint Instagram account, and in the caption they gave their nearly 800K followers an update on one of Bella’s milestones.

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“Bella is 8 months! Being parents has been the sweetest, and one of the most rewarding things we have ever imagined. 🤍” wrote the couple. “Bella has such a silly, curious, and adventurous little personality. These days she keeps us busy on our toes.😅 She just got her first little tooth and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cuter toothy smile as hers💕 She is constantly smiling and giving us the sweetest baby kisses! God has blessed us over and beyond.”

The weeks leading up to Bella’s birth are playing out in the current season of Counting On, and in a recent episode Swanson explained why she decided to go against Duggar family tradition and give birth in a hospital instead of at home.

In the July 14 episode, Swanson and Duggar attended a birth class with his brother and sister-in-law, John David Duggar and Abbie Grace Burnett. The boys got the chance to experience simulated contractions and move around with pumpkin “babies” strapped to their stomachs.

Both John-David and Josiah were struggling with the pain, and John David even joked that he needed an epidural. But, Swanson said that for her birthing plan she wanted to “go natural” and skip the meds while delivering in the hospital.

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“But it just depends on how labor goes, it depends how long it is,” she explained.

Swanson added that she chose to give birth in a hospital because her mom – who has delivered nine children – has “always done hospital births.” The 21-year-old added that she feels “very comfortable” at the hospital, and if anything goes wrong a doctor is “right there.”

Lauren Swanson was in labor for 48 hours and ended up having two failed epidurals before she gave birth to Bella on November 8, 2019.

New episodes of Counting On air Tuesday nights on TLC.