On June 18, 2020, Dorothy (Morton) and Noah Sanders welcomed their fifth and sixth children and fourth and fifth sons, Carver Deall Sanders and Booker Van Sanders. Carver weighed in at 6 lb 7 oz and Booker was 6 lb 1 oz. They join older brothers Enoch Timothy (b. 2011), Patrick Oldreive (b. 2013) and Edwin Gianavel (b. 2016) and older sister Brielle Jeanine (b. 2018). According to her registry, Dorothy was due on June 25th and gave birth 7 Days Early.
As of right now, there are 40 GrandMortons + 2 On the Way. 23 of the already-born GrandMortons are male and 17 of them are female, so there are currently more male grandkids. Dorothy’s in-utero twins are both boys, so that’ll be 2 more male GrandMortons when they arrive, and will increase the boys’ lead.
Who has the largest sibling gap? Who has the smallest?
I’m not sure if you’re referring to the first or the second generation here, but here goes!
The largest sibling gap among the first generation is between Edwin and Paul at 887 Days. The smallest is between Katie and Mike at 429 Days.
The largest sibling gap among the second generation is between Edwin and Brielle Sanders (Dorothy’s #3 and #4) at 946 Days. The smallest is between Victoria and Audrey Morton (Sam’s #2 and #3) at 342 Days (”Irish twins”).
Some time in the last few days, Wesley and Rachel Morton had their seventh child and fifth son, Manuel Morton. This is the 37th Morton Grandchild. He was born a few weeks early (my estimate for his due date was May 12th) and is currently in the NICU in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. I’ll write up a full post when we get more information about him and the circumstances of his birth.
On December 8, 2018, Sam and Alyssa Morton welcomed their third daughter, Audrey Kress Morton. Little Audrey is the 36th Morton Grandchild. How does this affect the data? After the jump...
Gestational Age at Announcement and Birth
Alyssa has been very quiet about her pregnancies, so I (and FJ, they were great) had to do a bit of sleuthing to confirm that she was expecting, and when she was due. The first evidence of Alyssa’s pregnancy came through posts and stories on Adeline’s Instagram, which is private so I can’t post them. I also saw a registry website for Alyssa on The Bump saying Alyssa was due December 8, but she changed it back to an old due date after a few weeks. I date their Pregnancy Reveal to July 30, 2018, where Alyssa appeared with a noticeable bump in Addie’s story for Jackson Smith’s second birthday party.
I list Audrey’s due date as December 8, 2018, the date from the registry. That means that she was born Exactly On-Time, and when I found out that Alyssa was pregnant, she was 21 Weeks, 2 Days Along. Alyssa’s previous average birth was On-Time given that Norah was born 3 Days Early and Victoria was born 3 Days Late (via old registries as well), so she remains On-Time.
There were 131 Days between the reveal and the birth, which is 18 Days Shorter than Sam and Alyssa’s previous average and 29 Days Shorter than the Morton average. Sam and Alyssa’s average Reveal Spacing has moved to 143 Days (6 Days Shorter) and the overall Morton average has moved to 161 Days (1 Day Shorter). I can’t calculate gestational age for all of the GrandMortons because I don’t have exact due dates.
Spacing Between Births
Victoria was born on December 31, 2017 and Audrey was born on December 8, 2018, placing their births 342 Days Apart and making the two babies the second set of “Irish twins” in the Morton family (Bret and Ronald Smith are also Irish twins) and the closest siblings to date. Sam and Alyssa’s Average Child Spacing went from 323 Days to 329 Days (6 Days Longer), since I also included their Wedding to Child 1 Spacing. The Morton Average Child Spacing went from 544 Days to 537 Days (7 Days Shorter).
Total Predicted GrandMortons
Before Audrey’s birth, it was predicted that there would be 148 GrandMortons. Her birth has moved the number to 149 GrandMortons. The couple affected by this is John and Campbell, who are now predicted to have 17 Children instead of 16 (1 More), caused by the decrease in Morton Average Child Spacing. Sam and Alyssa themselves are still expected to have 26 Children. We’ll see.
Bonus
As of right now, there are no known pregnant Mortons (or Duggars, or Bateses)! We’ll see how long that lasts. The last time that was true for the Mortons was for a few months in 2017.
Bethany Lane just mentioned on her Instagram (private) that Baby #5 will be named Camille Alexandria Lane. In addition, from Adeline’s Instagram, it appears that the former Bret Smith III (Katie’s eldest) is now being called Brian, so I will be referring to him as Brian from now on.
Have Mike and Kressant ever explained the meaning behind their kids names???? Like there's the normal ones like Isabella and Jonathan, and then ones like El Roi?! I just don't understand
I can’t say I’ve found many explanations for any Morton children’s or grandchildren’s names, but I’ll give a quick rundown of the meanings I’ve found for all of Mike and Kress’s kids’ names. If I know why Mike and Kress gave their their kids the names they did I’ll mention it, but otherwise I’m going to assume they liked the sound or the meaning.
You might also note, her name is Kressant, which is pretty unusual in and of itself. On the Morton blog it was confirmed that it’s an alternative spelling of Crescent, as in crescent moon.
For transparency, my information is from behindthename.com and Wikipedia.
After the jump…
Michael Beveridge III: Michael is a traditional Hebrew name meaning “Who is like God?” and most heavily associated with the Archangel Michael. Beveridge is a Scottish surname, but I can’t figure out how it’s related to the Mortons.
Carlos Phinehas: Carlos is the Spanish (Kressant has some Puerto Rican heritage) version of Charles, which is from older German Karl meaning either “man” or “warrior” depending on the source. Phinehas is a Biblical name that appears multiple times, more commonly rendered Phineas in English.
Jonathan DeWet: They actually explained this one! Link here. Other sources I’ve found, however, say Jonathan means “God has given” rather than “God shall vindicate.”
Isabella Grace: Isabella is a Latinized version of Isabel, which is itself a derivative of Elizabeth. Elizabeth is Hebrew and means “my God is an oath,” plus appears multiple times in the Bible. Grace is the English word and can refer to God’s grace, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see it refer to physical grace of movement as well.
Byron Zizka: Byron is an English surname originally meaning “place of the cow sheds” and most notably borne by the poet Lord Byron. Zizka is after Jan Zizka, a Czech military general from the 1400s who defended the Hussites, a pre-Protestant reformatory group, against the Holy Roman Empire.
Harold Fletcher: Harold has its roots in Old English and means, approximately, “army leader.” It and variations thereof has been the name of several Scandinavian and English kings. Fletcher is an English surname, originally via French, referring to a person who makes arrows.
El Roi DeKalb: El Roi is a name of God from the Bible and means “the God who sees” or “the God who sees me.” DeKalb is a county in Georgia (as well as Illinois), but not the one the Mortons or Smiths live in.
Varina Brooke: I can’t find a definite meaning for Varina, but the most notable person with that name was Varina Davis, the second wife of Jefferson Davis and “First Lady of the Confederacy.” Brooke is from an English surname taken by people who lived near a brook or small river. EDIT: Kressant has explained that Brooke is after a friend of hers who has the same name and helped with Cab and Varina’s births.
Do any of the Morton couples tend to have big or small babies?
Most of the couples haven’t reported the size of every baby, but most of them have reported enough to give a decent average. I’m not going to report birth lengths because my data for those is even spottier.
(pictured are Elijah with his father Cleve and Willie with his grandfather Michael Sr.)
On Average
The highest average weight for Morton babies goes to Cleve and Lisë, whose children (with recorded weights) have been 9 Pounds 6 Ounces at birth on average. Lisë also gives birth the latest out of all the Morton mothers.
The lowest average weight for Morton babies goes to Wesley and Rachel, whose children with recorded weights have been 6 Pounds 3 Ounces on average. Rachel also gives birth the earliest out of all the Morton mothers.
(pictured is Wallace with his mother Katie and Joey with one of his great-grandfathers)
Records
The heaviest GrandMorton on record was Wallace Smith, Katie and Alan’s fourth, who weighed 10 Pounds 6.5 Ounces at birth. I don’t know his due date.
The lightest GrandMorton on record was Joey Smith, Wesley and Rachel’s first, who weighed 5 Pounds 6 Ounces at birth. He was born 5 Weeks Early.
