For some time, Charmed's 冬青, 冬青树 Marie Combs wasn't a mother, but she played one on TV. Yet on-air pregnancy, delivery, and child-rearing didn't really prepare the WB's good witch for her first nonfiction baby adventures.

On Playing Mom
"Faking it was much easier.I got to give the baby back to its rightful owner and go 首页 for a good night's sleep. Before 你 have a baby, 老友记 tell 你 'sleep now,' and 你 laugh because 你 don't think that all those stories could be true. But they are."

Real-Life Monsters
"I was worried -- I wasn't sure I had the maternal instinct. But the 分钟 my son came out, he was my 最喜爱的 person on earth. I was crazily in tune with him, and I knew we were going to be fine."

On Conception
"I had a few fibroids removed, and they left me with a Grand Canyon of scar tissue in my uterus. The doctors weren't sure I'd be able to reproduce. I was prepared for a rough road, and then out of nowhere we conceived."

The Pregnant Body
"The extra weight was a shocker. I'm only 5'2" and gained 40 pounds. And unfortunately, I was photographed the entire time."

Finding Out the Sex
"I can't understand people who don't find out the 分钟 they can. Both my husband and I wanted a boy. I wasn't sure what I'd do with a daughter. What if she asked for a Barbie? I would have been like, 'Honey, we don't support 芭比娃娃 because she isn't an accurate depiction of a woman's body."

Choosing the Name
"I printed a 列表 of Irish names from the Internet and my husband, Dave, saw 'Finley' on the list. I really liked it but didn't want to scare Dave off with my enthusiasm. So I used a little reverse psychology and let him think it was his idea."

The Big Day
"Because of my earlier surgery, I had a scheduled c-section. The 日 before, I read that only 10 percent of women's waters break at home. I thought it was interesting because water breaking is always what 你 see in 电影院 -- we'd even done it on my show. Then I swear I stood up and my water was all over the floor. I panicked."

What She Wishes She Had Known
"I was unprepared for the c-section. I was asleep for fibroid surgery, but 你 have to be awake for a c-section, and the doctors were silent through a lot of it. I also experienced horrible shakes. The 更多 I tried to stop, the worse it got, and that freaked Dave out. 老友记 who had c-sections told me it was a piece of cake. They were lying! The end result was worth it, but it was painful and tiring."

Sanity Savers
"Swaddling blankets. Dr. Brown's bottles. And the Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium Swing, which rocks from side to side, knocks Finley out almost instantly. [My costar] Rose [McGowan] got me a Graco Pack 'N Play, and Finley easily spent the first three months in it -- it was the only place we could get him to sleep."

Sleep -- 或者 Lack Thereof
"I think letting 婴儿 cry it out is barbaric. Why would parenting stop when it's dark outside? 你 can't expect a baby to know that he's supposed to sleep just because we want to go to bed."

Advice for New Moms
"You need to be emotionally ready for a baby, and the best way to do that is to clean skeletons from your own closest. Deal with the baggage of your childhood 或者 you'll just pass it on to your kid. Also, there's nothing like a baby to point out the differences between 你 and your husband, so discuss big issues beforehand, like breastfeeding, discipline, religion, and school. It helps 你 become a united front. And, oh yeah, sleep now."

Carrie 钟, 贝尔 is an entertainment writer and reporter in Los Angeles.

Originally published in American Baby magazine, April 2005.