Knocked Up Celebs

Elaine Cassidy, who starred on Harper’s Island, covers the August/September 2009 issue of Fit Pregnancy. Elaine is pregnant with her first child with husband, Stephen Lord. She is due in the fall.

Elaine said that she loved doing the photo shoot while being pregnant because it would be a great keepsake for the baby.

“It felt really special because it’s not just me posing. The baby and I did this together. It’s kind of a keepsake.”

She also talked to the magazine about her cravings, the pregnancy and the birth. Here are the highlights:

On her cravings: I seem to want foods from my childhood: fresh orange juice – and it has to be fresh – eggs, cheese, yogurt. And Irish breakfast, which is sausage, eggs, rashers, mushrooms, black and white pudding, grilled tomatoes and hash browns.

On her prenatal diet: I normally eat really healthy food, but I find it tougher to eat the foods I usually look forward to, such as fish and vegetables; it’s just taking more of an effort. I’m much more drawn to dairy and meat. I still enjoy fruit and I take a prenatal vitamin.

On wanting children: When I was younger, like 10 years old, I was freaked out by the idea of having a child. It was strange, when I didn’t need to bother thinking about that. But, it seemed like what people expected you to do, and I thought, “No, I don’t want that responsibility.” Then my sisters started having children, and my broodiness came out. I could see that they survived it and I could see how much fun it is. Hard work, too—God, the sleep deprivation is a form of torture. And I realized there was no way I could go through life and not have a child. But in my business you can’t really plan for taking time out, and it’s daunting: What if people forget about me? You just have to give over control and trust that it will all be OK. And I am excited and glad; I never took for granted that I would be able to have a baby.

On being scared of the delivery: Not really, but maybe that will come later. I just keep thinking—it’s been going on since the beginning of time so I see it as a challenge and one I have to get through. I’m interested to see how I cope. It’s almost like when you take on a job, if you look at the whole picture, it could freak you out, so you just go scene by scene—it makes it doable.

Photo Source: Fit Pregnancy

You may know Teresa Strasser from the TLC show, While You Were Out, or from the Adam Carolla radio show she does in the morning. I got a chance to talk to her the other day when she pointed me in the direction of her pregnancy blog, Exploiting My Baby. Teresa takes a look at the funny side of pregnancy all while airing her fears of becoming a parent. I laughed so much while reading it and wished that this blog was around when I was pregnant.

I asked her if she would be willing to answer some of the pregnancy questions, since she is six months along and almost finished, I had and she could answer them. I know every pregnant woman needs a good laugh now and then, and I know Teresa can help with that. So here is our question and answer session.

On what surprised her the most about her pregnancy: How much I felt like a sit-com, which is to say: predictable and unfunny. I did all the things you might expect to see on the lamest show - stand in front of the fridge eating pickles and hunks of cheese and ice cream, complain about being fat, cry when I had to buy extra large panties. Speaking of which, I was really shocked at going from an A cup to a C cup in just the first four months, but what isn’t so glamorous is the upgrade in panty size. No matter how you slice it, extra large panties are hard to embrace. On the positive side - and people who talk about their great sex lives usually disgust me, but I do this for the other girls thinking about conceiving - pregnant sex has been shockingly good. No one told me about this side effect. My doctor says it has to do with increased pelvic blood flow and hormones. Don’t get me wrong, you don’t feel pretty, but once you get over the initial “I can barely breath and I’m huge” resistance, it is crazy, crazy, insane good. Seriously, it’s the only thing I’m going to miss about being pregnant.

On her favorite symptom of pregnancy (meaning what she really hated): I never had heart burn before in my life. Early on in pregnancy, I thought “what is this burning sensation right around my heart?” Oh … this must be the heart burn I’ve been hearing so much about. I have had that all along, which some say is common when you’re carrying a boy. I’ve gone through a few bottles of Cherry Mylanta, and I like to chug it right out of the bottle, cause it makes me feel like a real bad–s. So far, I must say it does nothing, and neither does Zantac, but I like to feel proactive. Still, all in all, heartburn is relatively painless, so I feel like I shouldn’t complain about it, but I guess it’s too late now to sound gracious and long-suffering.

On her weirdest cravings: During my first trimester, I needed orange juice every day. I wanted anything with vinegar or that was tart-tasting. The strangest craving I had was for a giant, frosty glass of Guinness Beer, which I never drank before. Suddenly, all I could think about was eating some salty French Fries and downing a thick, stout beer in the heat of the mid-afternoon. I can’t explain this, although some people in Ireland regard stout beer as health food, because it’s supposed to have extra iron. I didn’t give it, because I was so paranoid about alcohol during my first trimester, but my husband bought me some O’Doul’s Amber, which has very little alcohol, and I helped myself to a few sips. Oddly enough, it was pretty satisfying. I also can’t get enough ice cream sandwiches, bagels with cream cheese and tomato and those chewable chocolate vitamins. It’s a good way to feel good about eating candy, those chocolate vitamins. Genius. Is it bad to eat seven a day? It’s for the baby.

For more answers… Read the rest of this entry »

Reese Witherspoon is the cover girl for the April 2009 issue of Elle magazine. This busy mom of two kids, Ava and Deacon, spent some time talking to the magazine about her divorce, being a single mom and being a Type-A personality. Here are the highlights:

On her divorce from Ryan Phillippe: “Very humiliating and very isolating…But, by the way, if it’s not painful, maybe it wasn’t the right decision to marry to begin with. Those are the appropriate emotions. When people get in your face and say, ‘This will pass,’ you think, Are they crazy? I’m never gonna feel any better than I feel right this minute and nothing’s ever gonna make sense again. And I still have moments where I’m like, Nothings ever gonna make sense again.”

On being a young mother: “When I first had Ava, I couldn’t afford [help]. And it was so hard. I was out in Los Angeles, living [away from my family]. I really didn’t have any friends. And I had a baby. No one else who was 22 had a baby. I couldn’t go out.”

On her reported Type A personality: “I don’t think I’m a control freak. I think I’m just fearful. I operate from a lot of fear, like, of things being lost or forgotten or neglected. Losing the spiritual rather than the physical. It’s so funny to me that somehow I’ve been portrayed as a very, like, closed-off or uptight person. I’m very open.”

Photo Source: Elle

Jenny McCarthy has turned into a book author, and has put everything aside for now to focus on her son, Evan, 6. Her new book, Healing and Preventing Autism, hits stores this month.  Jenny recently chatted to Michigan Avenue magazine about Evan, her relationship with Jim Carrey, and why she’ll never pose for Playboy again. Here are the highlights:

On handling her son Evan’s autism diagnosis: “I Googled autism and found a community called Generation Rescue, which is a parent-run organization of moms who have been teaching other moms about diet, nutrition, supplements, and detox, and they have done an amazing job of healing their kids. I thought, Well, do I follow this path of moms who are saying their kids got better, or do I follow the path of the medical community who say these kids can’t get better? So I followed these parents and I’m so glad I did, because within a year of doing diet and nutrition with Evan, he lost his autism diagnosis.”

On how Evan is today: “He is the most talkative, social six-year-old little boy, who loves to play with his friends.”

On her deal with God: “I kind of made a deal with God, saying, ‘If you help me and you show me how to heal Evan, I promise I will teach the world how I did it.’ The hard part is everyone from this day on will know Evan’s business. People say, ‘Don’t you get worried that you made him the poster child for autism?’ And I say, “He’s the poster child for hope.’”

On why she’ll never marry Jim Carrey: “I will never get married. I hate that I say ‘never’ because the universe always says ‘tricked ya.’ But Jim and I, we talk about it a lot - just how funny it is that everyone wants us to or expects us to. When you’ve gotten married and divorced, you realize, OK, that wasn’t a set-in-stone agreement. We don’t know why the piece of paper has to prove our commitment. I think our words are just as powerful. I already call him my husband. It’s a name. ‘Oh, come here, husband.’ So I don’t feel the need at all to wear a white dress again. I did it. I marked that one off the fantasy file.”

On why she’d done posing for Playboy: “I love Playboy, and I owe them so much for giving me that first step into Hollywood. But I won’t be posing again, I’ll tell you that. I’m 36 - not that that means I’m 100, but I just really like my clothes on now.”

On her love of Botox: “I think plastic surgery is fun if it makes you feel good. I’m all for looking better, so I plan on doing whatever I want when the time comes. I love Botox, I absolutely love it. I get it minimally, so I can still move my face. But I really do think it’s a savior.”

Photo Source: Michigan Avenue

Katie Holmes looks so glamorous on the cover of the April 2009 issue of Glamour magazine. This is the issues 7oth Anniversary issue. Katie is back in New York working on her latest movie, The Extra Man. Back into her normal life after appearing on Broadway Katie talked to the magazine about her husband, gossip and a typical day for her. Here are the highlights:

On being married to Tom Cruise: “As a woman, you make the transition from being singe to [being] a partner. I have a teammate.”

On being a mom to daughter Suri: “Becoming a mother has been the most amazing experience—in an instant you become strong. You have to be a little bit wiser; it’s the most important job you have in the world… We like to be together, so we use the house for our [business] meetings. [We] play Yahtzee, board games, Scrabble. We grill; have pool parties. We play ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and Suri is the Big Bad Wolf. [Tom] reads story books to Suri and we all laugh. When a good song comes on, he’ll break into dance. We’ll watch movies in bed—recently Madagascar and Cinderella, for Suri. We have a really good time.”

On her career: “Acting—I want to do it all. Bad girl, good girl, complicated girl. Aren’t we all complicated?”

On gossip: “We were changing diapers. [Tom] said, ‘I don’t want you to get upset,’ And I said, ‘Well, I am upset.’ So we approached it together. But I definitely felt like—as a woman, as the mother of Suri—I want to handle this! My mom is very strong, and if anyone ever said anything about any of us, she would be, ‘Excuse me?’ That’s my family!’”

On cooking: “I don’t really cook that much—eventually I will. I do make cupcakes. And [Tom] makes his pasta carbonara for me. He knows exactly how to do it: a pinch of this, a pinch of that. He has a recipe, but he also kind of [improvises] by himself. You have to do the egg at a certain time. He did it once when we were camping.”

More pictures after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

Melissa Joan Hart is busy with her career and her life with her husband, Mark Wilkerson, and two sons, Mason, 3, and Brady, 1. Melissa took some time out of a busy day with her boys to talk to Parents magazine about dieting, kids and her husband. Here are the highlights…

On having children: Since I was little, I knew that I wanted to have children. I’m the oldest of eight kids, and I have always liked the idea of a big family. I love my siblings, and I loved growing up with all of them. Having a big family has always been very important to me, and I would hate for my kids to not be able to experience that. Mark and I would like to have more eventually.

On the pressures of dieting in Hollywood: Dieting is such a big thing in Hollywood. To be free of pressure while I was pregnant was nice. At first it took a while to get rid of the food guilt, but then I was like, “Let me at it!” I kept saying, “I’m pregnant.” I was eating and eating, and I gained a little too much weight when I was pregnant with Mason. I went back to my old comfort foods, pasta and bagels. I didn’t have morning sickness, but I wasn’t feeling well.

On losing the pregnancy weight: I wasn’t in any hurry to lose the pregnancy weight. I did lose it, but only once I put my mind to it. I am lucky to have really good genes; my mom is super-skinny after having all of us. I found that after having Mason, as soon as I stopped breastfeeding it was easier to drop the extra pounds. When you’re trying to feed your kids healthy food, you take better care of yourself. After I had Brady, I began eating healthier right away. I was also chasing around a very active 2-year-old, which meant constant calorie burning.

For the rest of the highlights and more pictures of the family, check after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

Nadya Suleman showed off her eight babies to the world this morning; Maliah, Noah, Jonah, Isaiah, Nariah, Jeremiah, McCai and Josiah. She has the names from the Bible going on, which seems to be appropriate for what she has went through. The premature babies have turned two weeks old and are so tiny and adorable. Nadya talks to Ann Curry about the babies and how happy she is that they are here, and how she will take care of them when they get home…here are the highlights.

On introducing the babies: “Hi, Maliah, your eyes are open…This is Noah and he’s doing well. He’s blond, the only one with blond hair…Hiya, Jonah … this tiniest one was the troublemaker…This is Isaiah, baby C, he’s getting bigger, he’s starting to recognize my voice…I wish I could be here all day…This is Jeremiah. He’s on lights for jaundice…Hiya, McCai…Hi, Josiah, I wish I could stay all day long, but I can’t. Your brothers and sisters at home want to see you … I can’t wait until they’re all together. We are not a whole family.”

On how people think she is doing all this for money: . “That’s funny how untrue that is. Money? Money is necessary to raise children. But it’s — it’s paper. It is paper. To me, it is superfluous in contrast to the importance of my kids.”

On how she is making money: “I’m not receiving help from the government. I’m not trying to expect anything from anybody. I just wanted to do it on my own. Any resources that someone would really, really want to help us, I will accept, I would embrace.”

On how she will feed her babies: “I will feed them. I will do the best I possibly can. And in my own way, in my own faith, I do believe wholeheartedly that God will provide in his own way.”

On how she is going to take care of her large family and let no one be ignored: “All I can do is do my very best and be there for them; be present in their lives and have them my absolute priority in my life. I was not expecting it.”

For Nayda’s mom’s side of the story check after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

Niki Taylor and her husband, Burney Lamar, were trying for 18 months to get pregnant, and nothing was working.

“Every month it wasn’t happening, I was feeling more frantic. I needed to stop thinking about it — everybody was telling me this, including my doctor. I was so frustrated and worried.”

After another round of tests they were encouraged to keep trying and not use drugs to help them.

“I just decided, ‘Whatever,’” the model says. “Clomid was going to be the next thing we tried, in a year. I talked about it with [my manager] and she said, ‘Women were made to have babies. You are still producing eggs. You need to relax. Everything has checked out.’”

I know that I was told I would never get pregnant again and when I relaxed, that is when I got pregnant. Niki did the same thing…she started eating and sleeping better. And then she was able to reach for the pregnancy test. Then she found out she was pregnant!

Niki is due at the end of March with a baby girl and the couple couldn’t be happier. There could be complications in the delivery because of the accident she suffered in 2001. Doctors needed to rebuild “her back by implanting two steel rods to hold her spine together.” So between the two rods being right where she would need an epidural and the scar tissue on her abdomen the doctors might have troubles taking the baby out if a C-section is needed. Niki is confident and optimistic that everything will run smoothly.

“You know what? I had the worst pain I could imagine after the accident and surgeries,” she says. “I can do natural childbirth! So many people have been encouraging me … and I’m feeling really strong and optimistic about it.”

But, until the baby comes she’s enjoying getting ready for her arrival. That’s always the fun part!

“I am just really enjoying getting ready for the baby we have wanted so much,” she says. “I am a very blessed girl.”

I can’t wait to see that cute baby girl.

Photos and Source: Celebrity Baby Blog

Before Jodie Sweetin separated from her husband, Cody Herpin, she did an interview with Baby Couture about their 8-month old daughter, Zoie. Jodie said that Zoie is “the most important thing in our lives.” You can just see the joy in her eyes on this holiday issue of the magazine. Here are some highlights of the interview…

On how she feels about her adoptive parents: “I know [my parents] love me no matter what, and that is something that I hope Zoie will always know.”

On what baby Zoie is doing right now: “Well, she is currently finding her voice and learning to squeal. so when she gets really excited about something, or when Cody or I walk into the room, she gets the biggest smile on her face and just lets out this super high-pitched squeal. But it’s the cutest thing, because she’s so happy.”

On disciplining Zoie: “I have a feeling mom will be the spoiler — I hate to see that little lip and those tears!”

Photo Source: Celebrity Baby Blog

Brad Pitt is a family man, you can tell that by his devotion to partner, Angelina Jolie, and six kids. He recently sat down with Rolling Stone and shared about his life as a kid, his future and his family. Here are some highlights of the interview:

On getting help from his kids to use his iPod: “I normally need my kids to do this. They’re so beyond me in technology, it’s hard to keep up. Our seven-year-old was searching the word ‘weapons’ on Google the other day and ended up on some white-supremacist site. I’m sure now we’re on all kinds of watch lists.”

On his hopes for the future: “I have this fantasy of my older days, painting or sculpting or making things. I have this fantasy of a bike trip to Chile. I have this fantasy of flying into Morocco. But right now, more and more, it’s about getting the work done and getting home to family. I have an adventure every morning, getting up.”

On if he went to church every Sunday as a child: “Yeah. And it was too much of what you shouldn’t be doing instead of what you could be doing. I get enraged when people start telling other people how to live their lives. It drives me mental. This Prop. 8 thing just drives me mental.”

[Image by WENN]