Don't tell your kids you had an easy birth or they won't respect you. For years I used to wake up my daughter and say, 'Melissa you ripped me to shreds. Now go back to sleep.'.
I have been pregnant in so many movies it's ridiculous.
I've been on hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of auditions in my life, so it's not unusual that I went in for 'Glee.' What was unusual is that it was a week, exactly, after I had given birth.
The first few weeks of being a mom were profound, not just emotionally but also, physically. All the changes you instinctually go through are miraculous.
In seven books, I've written my fair share of baby epilogues. Pregnancies and births and even grandchildren have made an appearance in the final pages of my books.
Giving birth is like taking your lower lip and forcing it over your head.
I loved being pregnant. I felt unapologetically curvy, sexy, and intensely feminine. After giving birth I joined the ranks of millions of new mothers when I moaned, 'Why do I still look pregnant?'
Pregnancy was probably the best and the hardest thing I'll ever go through. I know for a lot of women, it can be wonderful and relatively easy.
That first year after a child, I kind of just hunker down at home - I surrender to that side of me. I don't try to get my body back or be in the world; I go the opposite way.
In real life, being a new mom, I would like to be able to sleep. I'd like to snap my fingers and be asleep because I'm a little sleep-deprived, at the moment.
A woman can tell me about her having a baby, but I'll never know what it is to have a baby.
Right after I had Anaiya, I definitely wanted more kids. I was like: 'I think I could do this professionally.' Because I loved being pregnant so much.
People always say that pregnant women have a glow. And I say it's because you're sweating to death.
After you have kids, you feel differently about your body. Aesthetically, am I happy with my body? No. I definitely think you come to view it as more functional. But you just get past it.
I always thought my alternative life, if I wasn't acting, would be to become a midwife. I love women. I want to help them exist.
After having a baby, there will inevitably be something on your body - a mark, a scar or some loose skin - that wasn't there before.
Being a mother gives you an incredible feeling of empowerment, you think if I can go through such pain and that level of sleep and still operate and not be grumpy you can do anything. It can be quite scary, you can't function your brain, forget your vocabulary.
It's a pretty brutal process, having a baby.
You never know what state you're going to be in after giving birth.
To give birth is a fearsome thing; there is no hating the child one has borne even when injured by it.
I am not pregnant, but I've had three kids, and there is a 'bump.' From now on, ladies, I will have a 'bump,' and it will be my 'baby bump,' and let's just all settle in and get used to it; it's not going anywhere.
Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching middle life, who had never quite got her figure back after her fourth foal.
Ang Lee's been nominated for best director for "Life of Pi," which is what I'm going to call the six weeks after I take this dress off.
When you have a new baby, you can get really overwhelmed, since it's such a huge responsibility. You're thrilled to be a mom, but your sleep schedule is so thrown off and it can be scary if you don't have a good support system.
Most new moms, and even experienced moms, have questions in the months after giving birth. Pregnancy books don't explain everything, and you may be caught off guard by some things that are happening both to you and to your baby in those first few months.
