Moms & Babies

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Feb 16 2009 08:00 PM ET
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Charlotte Church Amazed By Newborn Son Dexter

Courtesy OK! UK

Thanking everything from 24 to curry takeout, Charlotte Church introduced her new son Dexter Lloyd, 5 weeks, in the February 3rd issue of OK! UK — and raved about life as a mom of two. “I was a bit of a pain in the ass in the last few months,” she admits. “I was so uncomfortable, I just completely lost sight of how amazing it is when you have a newborn and how precious they are.” Also getting high marks from Charlotte? Partner Gavin Henson, who had a soothing affect on the 22-year-old songstress during labor and delivery. “The midwife couldn’t believe how calm Gavin was,” Charlotte recalled. “He talked me through it.” Gavin — for his part — was quick to downplay his role.

“She was in so much pain. It’s frustrating because you’d like to take that pain away if you could, but you can’t do anything. So I was just trying to encourage her.”

As she did with 16-month-old Ruby Megan, Charlotte was hoping to deliver at home. Around 5 p.m. on January 10th, contractions were coming “quite regularly” but the couple were unsure if they were true, having suffered through several bouts of false labor in the weeks leading up to that moment. “I didn’t want to tell anyone in case it was a false alarm again, so we ordered Indian [takeout],” she said. The curry apparently did the trick! Just after midnight on January 11th, Charlotte was able to accomplish her goal of an unmedicated, midwife-assisted home birth; Unlike many women, however, she said that delivering a subsequent child was more painful than a first.

“Dexter was in an awkward position in my pelvis, he was all up close to my back. The contractions were really strong for a long time. I was shouting for [pain relief] but by the time they got it ready I was ready to push.”

Further complicating matters, Dexter was facing the wrong way – though in the final 15 minutes of labor he managed to turn on his own. ”He had an indentation on his head, because of the way he was laying and babies’ skulls are so soft,” Charlotte explained. “That took a few days to go down.”

Click below to read how Ruby is adjusting to life with a baby brother.

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Feb 16 2009 07:00 PM ET
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Isla Fisher Shares Her Slimming Secret

Flynet

Only a few short months after welcoming her first child, daughter Olive, actress Isla Fisher was ready to return to the big screen as the leading lady in her new movie Confessions of a Shopaholic. However, before the 33-year-old could slip into the ostentatious outfits worn by her character, Isla needed to shed the approximately 60 pounds she had put on during her pregnancy.

While Isla admits that the movie’s director hired a personal trainer in an effort to help her along in her weightloss journey, the Australian native — who ”just tried my best” — believes that the majority of the pounds came off as a result of her breastfeeding. Although Isla managed to regain her figure in four short months, the dramatic change is certainly not a result of any lack of eating on the actresses part! “I’m still hungry. I’ll look at the dessert menu. I eat dessert. I’m terrible,” says Isla, only after cleaning her plate of her lobster salad and bread during an interview with USA Today.

She makes no apologies for her newfound passion of food, sharing that she is “still breastfeeding.” In fact, according to Isla, she may need to keep up the hearty appetite for quite some time! “I’m only going to stop when [Olive] goes to university,” the actress jokes.

Amazed by the results of nursing, Isla has no qualms with sharing her slimming secret with other people — both men and women — struggling to lose those pesky pounds.

“So to all those men out there, if you want to lose weight, get breastfeeding!”

Olive, 16 months, is Isla’s daughter with her fiancé, actor Sacha Baron Cohen. Confessions of a Shopaholic is in theaters now.

Source: USA Today, Us Weekly; February 23rd issue

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Feb 16 2009 06:00 PM ET
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Haba Pia Beanbag

There are a number of beanbag cushions for kids on the market, but none are sweeter than Haba’s embroidered heart Pia Beanbag ($130).

– Danielle

CBB Deal: Save 20% with coupon code BABYCELEB.

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Feb 16 2009 05:00 PM ET
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Angela Bassett Grateful for the 'Ebb and Flow' of Career

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin

For actors Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance — whose 3-year-old fraternal twins Slater Josiah and Bronwyn Golden were born in 2006, via surrogate – the line between work and family has been blurred. Not only does Courtney currently play Angela’s husband on ER, their characters on the show are struggling with infertility. “So far it’s working out,” Angela says. “The ebb and flow of this life has worked out.”

Noting that “when the kids came along, he finished Law & Order so he was home,” Angela says the couple feels they “are blessed” by the flexibility afforded to them by virtue of their careers. Still, the hours can be brutal! Explains Angela,

“On Monday, I have to be there at 6:00 am which means I have to get up at five, but they’re not up at 5:00 a.m. They’re not up until 7:00 a.m. I have to do a 12 to a 16 hour day and when I get home at 8:00 p.m., they’re asleep because they go to bed at 7:30. Then, on Fridays we might work until 3:00 in the morning so that’s the hard part. I’m in the house with them – the husband and the children – and I haven’t seen you all day or I haven’t seen you for two days.”

Things could always be worse, however. Actress Alex Kinsgston — who later this year will briefly reprise her role as ER‘s Dr. Elizabeth Corday – shared with Angela the schedule she kept while starring on the BBC1 drama Hope Springs. “She went to to do a TV show for five months and her child stayed [behind],” Alex recalled. “She came home every six weeks or once a month for a couple of days.”

“I was like, ‘Let’s not even talk about it because I can’t imagine.’”

Angela and Courtney were married in 1997.

Source: Black Voices

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Feb 16 2009 04:00 PM ET
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Erinn Hayes Credits Chemistry for Second Pregnancy

Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage

Worst Week‘s Erinn Hayes knew that she and husband Jack Hayes wanted a sibling for 1 ½-year-old daughter Maggie, but she didn’t want to cause a problem for her bosses. When Erinn learned that her character Melanie Clayton would start the series newly pregnant, the actress decided that the timing was right — “here we are presented with this opportunity that we don’t have to hide it on TV” — and decided to get pregnant herself. Erinn and Jack immediately starting trying for a baby and is happy to say that “everything worked out perfectly.” The couple is now expecting their second child this May.

“It’s such a weird thing to try to plan a baby around a TV season. There’s a three-month or four-month window in the summertime to have a baby and hang out with it a little bit before hopefully going back to work, so we were just very lucky. I guess chemistry was on our side.”

While the couple planned to have a second baby, they are not planning on finding out the sex and are shooting for a delivery surprise. “We waited with my daughter and we’re gonna wait with this one,” shares the 32-year old. “There are so few good surprises in life.” Even though she is not planning on learning what she’s having, Erinn believes that it is a little boy. “Although, with my daughter, I was so convinced that she was gonna be a boy that I was so surprised when she came out a girl. This one I really feel like it’s gonna be a boy, so it’s probably gonna be a girl, but we’ll see.”

“Last pregnancy, I tried [the old wives' tales tricks]. If you hold a ring over your belly and it spins one way [it tells you the gender], and it kept consistently spinning the boy way. Now, I don’t believe in any of that stuff.”

Worst Week airs Mondays at 9:30 p.m. on CBS.

Source: TV Guide

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Feb 16 2009 03:00 PM ET
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Around the Web…

Some links for your President’s Day:

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Feb 16 2009 02:00 PM ET
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Kristin Scott Thomas on Working Motherhood: It Was Bloody Hard Work!

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

While some working moms feel that they really can “have it all,” don’t count Kristin Scott Thomas among them. The 48-year-old actress “would have liked lots and lots of children” but says her career wouldn’t allow for it. “You really do have to choose,” she tells Psychologies magazine. “People would say to me at the time, you’re the woman who has everything but it was bloody hard work.”

“I have nothing but admiration for people who manage to have four or five children and a semblance of a job. It’s amazing how people can do that.”

When asked whether she ever felt guilt as a working mom, Kristin — mom to Hannah, 20, Joseph,17, and George, 8 – replies “would you like to show me a working mother who doesn’t?” According to the English Patient star “there’s no escaping it” — and it is something she struggles with to this day. The “worst time” of all, Kristin says, is when children enter their adolescence “because they start to express how they feel.”

“They say, ‘I don’t want you to go. Why are you always going?’ When they’re little they kind of take it on the chin but I found it very difficult leaving them in their early teens.”

Click below to read Kristin’s thoughts on grown-up children.

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