Samuel Dillard

Samuel in December of 2020

Samuel Scott Dillard is the second of Jill and Derick Dillard's three children.

## Early Life

### Pregnancy

On December 20, 2016, Jill and Derick Dillard announced that they were pregnant with their second child, who was due in July. In a joint statement, his parents said, "We are so excited to be expecting Dillard baby #2! Children really are a wonderful blessing from God. Having Israel has been such a delight to us that we know a second sweet baby will only continue to add joy to our family. We are thankful to God for this sweet child and we cannot wait to see her or him face to face!"

On January 31, 2017, they announced that they were expecting a boy.

On June 6, 2017, Jill and Derick announced that they would be naming their son Samuel Scott Dillard.

### Birth

   On July 8, 2017, Derick announced on the couple's blog that Jill had given birth to their second son, Samuel Dillard. After forty hours of labor, Samuel was born at 1:02p via a C-section. He weighed 9 pounds and 10 ounces and was 22 inches long.

Due to the gap between Samuel's birth and this announcement, as well as the limited number of photos released of Samuel after his birth, many speculated something had gone very wrong with the birth, and perhaps Samuel's health had been negatively impacted. This theory was furthered by the fact that Jill had previously discussed a home birth, but pictures showed that Samuel had been born at a hospital via C-section. Derick later claimed that a hospital birth with a planned C-section was the intention all along, despite videos shown on TLC where Jill talked about prepping for a home birth.

On January 6, 2018, in a birthday post to his mother, Derick shared a picture of Samuel at the hospital shortly after birth. The tubes and wires coming out of him only furthered speculation that something had gone wrong. Some commenters said it was a routine part of C-sections and they had had similar experiences, but Derick and Jill neither one commented on this.

## Resume

### Television Appearances

Before he was even born, Samuel was the subject of a number of episodes in seasons 5 and 6 of the TLC show *Counting On*. These episodes included his parents learning they were expecting and throwing a gender reveal party.

Although it is speculated that Samuel's birth was filmed for the show, that footage (if it exists) was never aired. On November 11, 2017, amidst negativity surrounding Derick Dillard's criticisms of the parents of Jazz Jennings, a transgendered teenager and the focus of another TLC show, *I Am Jazz*, TLC announced that they had stopped filming Derick and had no plans to film him in the future. A month later, on December 15, Derick posted on his own twitter that he felt it was best for his family to cut ties with TLC and head in a "different direction". At that time, the show was on a hiatus, with the timeline of the most recent season ending about two months before Samuel's birth. TLC posted a photo album announcing Samuel's birth the day he was born, but he has never officially appeared on the show.

### Sponsored Social Media Posts

Samuel is often featured in sponsored posts on his mother's instagram account. Generally he is seen in advertisements for children's clothing or toys, often from Christian companies. It is unknown if his mother makes any money from these posts or if they are primarily for the free products.

*profile photo credit*

## References

1. ↑ http://people.com/tv/jill-duggar-derick-dillard-pregnant-baby-number-two/
2. ↑ http://people.com/tv/jill-duggar-derick-dillard-pregnant-baby-number-two/
3. ↑ https://www.dillardfamily.com/dillard%20family%20blog?ID=377b4856-632c-4273-9a09-1fd8423054a2
4. ↑ http://dillardfamily.com/dillard%20family%20blog?ID=cea96bf0-01d4-4db1-80b5-580f19f44e7b
5. ↑ https://twitter.com/derickmdillard/status/998601790785499137
6. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdou9ftH8mN/?utm\_source=ig\_embed
7. ↑ https://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/jill-duggar-derick-dillard-son-medical-condition-150923/
8. ↑ https://www.amazon.com/Counting-On-Season-5/dp/B072KFJ9ZR
9. ↑ https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B075JJMCJL/ref=atv\_dp\_season\_select\_atf
10. ↑ https://twitter.com/TLC/status/929484003811479553
11. ↑ https://twitter.com/derickmdillard/status/941739351712714753