Entertainer extraordinaire, Usher Raymond, 28, is not one to be outdone by celebrity trends. So it came as no surprise when he announced last week that he and his boo, his former stylist Tameka Foster, 36, are expecting a child together, due sometime in the fall. It's Usher's first child and Tameka's fourth.

The young overachiever will have his hands full for the rest of 2007. The couple are planning their wedding simultaneously. (Tameka is recently divorced. She and Usher have been engaged since January.) And to top it off, he's also expecting a new album to drop and the release of a fragrance this fall.

Maybe I'm being a cynic, but the first thing I thought of when I read the news item was the lyrics to Kanye West's "Gold Digger." I wonder what Usher's mother Jonetta has to say about all this?

Anyway, regardless of the potential here for drama, new babies are happy news. So congrats to the couple!

Autumn Sullivan Corbett Fitzsimmons Jeffries Hart Burns Johnson Willard Dempsey Tunney Schmeling Sharkey Carnera Baer Braddock Louis Charles Walcott Marciano Patterson Johansson Liston Clay Frazier Foreman Brown's parents thought it'd be fun to give her a few extra middle names. 25 names, in fact (just in case you don't feel like counting) which totals a whopping 185 letters.

If that seems odd (and it is), what's even weirder is that it's all part of a family tradition. Autum's mom, Maria, comes from parents who gave their three children a total of 103 names. So what gives? Why make your kids memorize an entire paragraph just to learn their full name?

As boxing fans have probably already surmised, the names are in honor of the world's greatest fighters. Both Maria and her parents boxing fanatics -- and, as you might suspect, have a healthy sense of humor.

Anyone want to place bets on how old Autum will be when she finally memorizes the whole thing?

Guess what, ya'll? Eddie Murphy IS the daddy of Melanie C., aka Scary Spice's cute little baby girl. Those of you who placed bets may now officially collect your due cash, as the DNA test Eddie was required to take just linked him to the new tot.

At least that's what celebrity media god Perez Hilton has to say on the subject. He tends to be first with this sort of (useless but incredibly entertaining) breaking news. He got his news from People.com just in case you need to check out another source!

Let's hope Eddie does the right thing by his baby, little Angel Iris Murphy Brown, even if he doesn't want to continue his relationship with the baby's mother. Of course, Melanie C. and the rest of the Spice gang are due for a reunion so perhaps now that she'll be back in the limelight Eddie will cut her some slack.

Seeing how cute that little girl is I would personally die to be her daddy (I mean, if I were a guy).

Some parents go for the safe bet, and pick a name based on what's popular. Others try and steer clear of popular names, and opt for something more offbeat -- like Apple, or Juniper. And some parents, believe it or not, choose their children's names based on how high they rank in Google searches.

But Pat and Sheena Wheaton completely broke the mold three weeks ago, when they named their baby something I guarantee no parents had ever named their child before. They want their son to be called "4 Real."

I'm totally serious (for real, y'all).

"I guess when we had the first scan, we could see him inside, and we realized that it was all pretty real. I think that was the moment that we starting thinking, jeez, he is for real," says dad.

Pat and Sheena are having difficulty making 4 Real their son's official name, however, as the Australian Marriages Offices (where parents are required to register their children's names) won't accept any name beginning with a number. So they're talking to the press, the government -- anyone who will listen -- in their fight to name their child how they choose.

While I would never name one of my kids based on text-message speak, I don't think there's any reason to stop 4 Real's parents from using the name they want. It was only a matter of time before someone tried it, after all.

Any guesses on what we'll see next? The only one I can think of is "L8," for a baby carried past his or her due date. List your best ideas in the comments!

"I have always wanted to be a dad," said golfing legend Tiger Woods last December, when he announced his wife, a Swedish model and former nanny, was pregnant. Today she gave birth to their daughter, Sam Alexis. It seems celebrity babies are popping out all over the place these days. Tiger and his wife seem like a great couple.

On his website, Tiger thanked the doctors and hospital staff and added "This is truly a special time in our lives and we look forward to introducing Sam to our family and friends over the next few weeks. We thank everyone for their well wishes and continued respect of our privacy."

I'm sure that this is a bittersweet time for Tiger, though. Last December, when he announced the pregnancy, he noted "I just wish my father could be around to share the experience." My father passed away barely a year before Jared was born, and I truly wish he could have lived to see his grandchildren. I'm sure Tiger feels the same way. His father, Earl Woods, passed away in May of 2006.

Still, he and his wife have many sleepless nights to look forward to, and much joy. Congratulations to the new parents!

Keri Russell, the star of the television show Felicity, has given birth to yet another nature-themed hollywood baby. Her son, River Russell Deary, was born June 9th, but just announced today. This is the first child for Russell and her contractor husband, Shane Deary, who were married this past Valentine's day after dating and being engaged for several years. Her latest movie has her portraying a pregnant waitress in an unhappy marriage; as Jonathon pointed out, let's hope life does not imitate art.

Personally, I like names like this. Had I had any say in the matter, really, Jared would have been named Redwood, which seems to me to be a perfectly acceptable, albeit admittedly unusual name for a boy, especially when you consider that no one would have batted an eyelid at Sequoia for a girl. River, on the other hand, was ranked as the 511th most common name for boys in 2006, according to the Name Voyager.

In any case, whatever the kids' name is, congratulations to both parents!

This has been quite a weekend for us. Jared's new bed arrived and my father-in-law and I spent yesterday putting it together. Of course, that necessitated cleaning and rearranging the rest of the room. Thing still aren't completely settled down, but we're getting there. I decided to take a break and do some web surfing.

My kids love their grandparents. My mother-in-law watches them twice a week for us, but they don't get to see Pa John quite as often. So it was a special treat for them to have him over -- and I know he loves seeing them. Luckily, we all live in the same town, so they see him every couple of weeks. Luckyzmom, however, lives a fair distance from her kids and grandkids, so it was a special treat for her when they came to visit. "I opened the door and there they stood. It felt like Christmas morning and they were beautiful packages waiting to be unwrapped." What a great mom and grandma!

When Jared was born, we ended up heading for the hospital at something like six in the morning, after I'd been working until after 1am. For Sara, Jared and I were at the Free Folk Festival when I got the call to come home. Veronica Mitchell, however, had a lovely day out with her husband before heading to the hospital to give birth. While it didn't go exactly the way it is supposed to, it all worked out fine. Then, of course, came the issue of the name. I think she picked a beautiful one, and a great way to tell the world.

Meanwhile, Sally at Sally Goes 'Round the Moon has figured out and enumerated the seven essential steps to Baby Love. Step one seems pretty obvious, but I suspect a lot of people forget it: "Step One: Obtain a baby. You can get one by a variety of methods, but you cannot skip this step if you want to experience the Real Deal, the Big Kahuna, True Baby Love." Check out the other six as well.

Well, I'd better go dig the kids out of the storage space of Jared's new bed before one of them kills the other or, worse, breaks the bed.

One of my dear friends is due to have her first baby in less than a month. We have a common group of friends, a vivacious circle of truly spirited women. We all have our twenty-something pasts in common, late nights slinging beers to rowdy regulars and overzealous University students.

There are about fifteen of us, all in various stages of life, ranging in age from mid-twenties to mid fifties. Late last week, we all realized that Jane's due date was getting close and that we'd better get on top of the baby shower thing. I volunteered to buy cupcakes and coffee and to host it at my house. My best friend and I were going through the guest list when we hit a bit of a snag.

One of our comrades recently experienced a devastating miscarriage. She had announced the pregnancy with flourish and excitement a few months ago, and then, sadly, lost her baby at three and a half months. We all felt terrible. She has an insanely adorable 4-year-old son, and could possibly contend for world's best Mother. But at 38 years old, her chances of conceiving naturally might be limited, and so this was an especially hard blow.

"Do we invite her?" I asked Mel,"I don't know. It might be too hard."
"Of course we invite her, she's part of the crowd," she replied.

But I wasn't so sure. I've read a lot of infertility journals, and though I've never experienced a miscarriage, I have a toddler and I think I can fathom the disappointment. I wasn't sure whether it would be worse to not include her, or invite her and run the risk of deepening her pain.

In the end, we invited her, and she came, and it was fine. But I wonder - would you invite a friend who is struggling to have a baby to a baby shower? What's worse -- the feeling of not being included or the sadness of what could have been. I'm really not too sure myself.

Two of my favorite children's books are Debra Frasier's On the Day You Were Born and Jamie Lee Curtis' Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born. Both tell the story of a child's arrival in a family; Frasier frames her narrative in the larger context of the environment, recounting how the child's birth is part of the circle of life, while Curtis writes about adoptive parents who leap out of bed in the middle of the night and rush to meet their new baby. Both are charming and touching, no matter how your child came into your life.

I love the idea of a special story about the birth of a child. At our house, we have one for each child. Henry's is a fact-filled accounting of his early arrival ("I couldn't WAIT!" he announces when we say he was premature) and his ten day NICU stay. We tell him about how tiny he was, that he was the smallest baby I've ever held, that he used to sleep on my chest, with his head tucked under my chin. I tell him that he still, to this day, looks exactly like he did the first time I saw him.

Charlie's story is less factual, more fanciful; he's not interested in the details of his (very routine) birth. He wants to hear about how, in the week before he arrived, I could see the outline of his little foot pressing out against my stomach, how I could see the heel and count the toes. And then we make a joke, the same one every time: "Where did you come from?" we ask him, and he shouts "FROM THE CHARLIE STORE!"

I don't even remember how that started.

Do you have a story you tell your child, about the night your family grew? Is it factual or fanciful?

No matter how funny it might seem to you, do not tell an elderly friend with a bad heart that you "got a girl pregnant," even if that girl is your wife. She will not find it amusing. Nor will her nurse. Neither, for that matter, will the paramedics. The funeral director won't get it either.

So, again, even if you think it's the funniest gag in the history of mankind, don't do it. Just stick with something like "We're going to have a baby!" or "I'm going to be a father!". Trust me on this one. Unless, of course, you know for sure that she's already written you into her will. Then go for it. It'll be a riot.

I should be in bed so I can actually wake up and go to work on time for a change, but I can't help trolling the web at this hour. Good thing too because I just found out that everybody's favorite 9021-ho, (sorry couldn't resist) Tori Spelling gave birth to a baby boy today. Thanks PEOPLE!

Oddly enough, I was just admiring this photo of Tori on GoFugYourself.com this morning. I won't add my comments -- I think the gals at Fug captured it perfectly. This is the first child for Tori, age 33 and the second for hubby Dean McDermott, age 40.

I was kinda hoping Tori would stay true to her roots and name the baby David Silver McDermott, or maybe Dylan McKay McDermott. But apparently Tori decided to sit the Hollywood out on this and give her son the lovely name of Liam Aaron McDermott. I think it's nice how she incorporated her estranged father's name. Born in L.A. weighing 6 lbs. 6 oz, Liam and mum are happy and doing well.

No comment on whether or not Liam's got an agent or a plastic surgeon yet. No comment from jilted ex-wife Mary-Jo Eustace yet either -- stay tuned.

All snarkiness aside, (forgive me -- it's late and I'm out of ice cream) congrats to the couple on their new addition!

OK, so I know I'm not Britney or Angelina, or even remotely worthy of the cover of People magazine. But I hope that over these few short months that I've been writing here, you've gotten to know me a bit and that this would be somewhat interesting news.

Over the past few months, I have openly discussed the fact that my husband and I were trying to conceive a second child. I am happy to report that we have succeeded in this mission and expect our new addition at the end of August. (Yes, I have to survive a sweltering summer as a human microwave.)

We did try the Shettles method hoping to swing the odds in favor of a girl, but we've decided not to find out the sex of our baby in advance this time around. So you'll have to wait for the baby to make his or her appearance before knowing if it worked for us.

I've officially entered the second trimester and am feeling moderately awake for the first time in months. I hope to have lots of anecdotes and pregnancy-related news for you over the coming months. Thanks for all your advice on home pregnancy tests!

A reader asked for an update on the mermaid baby born and abandoned in China a couple of months ago. Doctors worked hard to save the baby, but in the end, the problems associated with sirenomelia proved too much and the baby succumbed to heart failure at almost 40 days old.

Remember that mom-to-be in England who had previously had her kids on the 26th, 27th, and 28th of December? She placed a bet of 29 quid (about $56 US) that her fourth child would follow the sequence and would be born on the 29th. At 29-to-1 odds, she stood to win 841 pounds (more than $1600 US). Alas, as of the new year, she was still awaiting the child's arrival. Still, for less than the cost of an evening out, she had some fun and gained a bit of worldwide fame. Good luck to her and her newest -- whenever he decides to show up.

If there's a story you'd like to see an update on, just drop us a note via the tip line (way up there in the upper right corner, normally) and we'll do our best to follow-up.

Most birth stories follow a basic plot: mom and dad spend an intimate evening together, mom becomes pregnant, nine months later a baby is born. But for one Louisiana couple, the plot thickens significantly. For Glen and Rebekah Markham, the upcoming birth of their second child will hold stories for generations to come. Their newest addition was but a frozen embryo when hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast area in the summer of 2005. The Markham's embryos, along with many others, were rescued during the aftermath of the storm when electricity to the hospital housing them was extinguished.

This is an aspect of the hurricane that I had not given any thought, but it is one that likely means so much to the families whose embryos were rescued. I read that special boats were needed to retrieve the embryos, no small feat in the conditions that were present after the hurricane. What a wonderful gift for the many families whose embryos were saved.