UPDATE: False alarm! Derick Dilllard wrote on Friday, April 3, in a lengthy blog post that his wife Jill Duggar was in labor, and compared her contractions to the end times — but it turns out that the eager dad spoke to soon.
His (still!) pregnant wife shared a photo on Friday afternoon, writing: "Out to lunch…maybe this spicy Mexican food will make the baby come! Only Braxton Hicks contractions with this weather so far. We shall see what the weekend brings! #nobabyyet #lunchwithmyhubby."
19 Kids and Counting star Dillard jumped the gun on Friday, believing that his wife was in labor. (Many first time moms mistake Braxton Hicks contractions with actual labor pains.) The excited future dad later cleared the air via Twitter.
Baby dilly will come in God's timing. ???? #babydilly #41weeksandcounting #notinactivelaboryet
— Derick Dillard (@derick4Him) April 3, 2015
Dillard, 26, first shared the news of his wife in labor in a lengthy blog post on Good Friday, describing in detail how he felt about the arrival of his baby boy. "My wife, Jill, is beginning to have contractions which means that the birth of our son is near," he wrote in a blog post titled "Jill's Labor and My Understanding of the Bible."
"I can’t even describe right now the anticipation I am feeling, as I am about to get to meet my firstborn son for the first time face to face," the Arkansas native continued. "So many people have already testified that nothing can quite describe that moment and that I’ll just have to experience it for myself. When I look around, I can see new life everywhere. The trees are budding, which means summer is near."
Dillard used a Biblical passage to illustrate how he felt about his first child's imminent birth. "In Matthew 24, Jesus uses the pictures of both a laboring mother and a budding fig tree in spring to relate to people how events surrounding the last days of earth – 'end times events' (i.e. famine, wickedness, false teaching, rumors of war, the testimony of Jesus going to all the world) will transpire," he wrote. "If you don’t know Jesus, and your uncertainty of the end of the world scares you, I urge you to consider the words of Jesus, repent of your sin, and live your life for God."
The reality star then used his wife's contractions to further explain these end times. "From what I’ve learned in birth class (as well as from Jill, who is a student midwife) and from what I am witnessing right now with Jill, labor pains start sporadically and then become more consistent, longer lasting, and stronger the closer we get to the birth of our son," Dillard wrote. "Again, it’s important to remember that we don’t know when he will be born, but we can definitely see the evidence that points to his imminent arrival, whenever that might be. This is the perfect picture of how 'end times' events will play out."
Dillard personally found this teaching important ahead of his role as a father. "Now that I’m about to be a dad, I find it quite interesting that Jesus related the end of the world to the event of birth," he wrote. "And it’s easy to relate to because as much as Jill and I want to know when this birth will happen, the day and the hour of baby dilly’s birth is definitely unknown."
The couple confirmed to Us Weekly last August that Duggar, 23, was pregnant with their first child in an announcement made just 60 days after marrying. She is currently more than one week overdue.
