Awww. Thank goodness it's a girl. She'll be pretty like her parents.

…and I hope she doesn't give her kid some whack a– name. No hyphenated last names either. Just pick one because Aubry-Barry and Barry-Aubry sound kinda meh. Aubrey Barry would be nice

I am happy for her. I was so worried about the baby because halle has diabetes(sp). I read that she was so emotional that she did not want to let the baby go.

According to E!, they're not hyphenating. Thank goodness. I don't care for my last name so maybe that's why I'm against it unless of course your mama's name is Vanderbilt, Hearst, Rockefeller, Getty, etc.

From the E! thing, I gather she didn't have a C-section. If she's looking hot in a two-piece come July, I will be mad at her. I don't care how many personal chefs, trainers, nutritionists, coke dealers and nannies she has. She's 41 years old.

I don't get why you said "thank goodness it's a girl." A healthy baby, male or female, is what is hoped and prayed for.

Halle's last name is Berry, not Barry.

Not saying a boy would be bad. Just saying that if she had a male child, he'd probably have very effeminate features a la James Haven.

Also, ugh (I really hate to do it but as a child of divorce, it's automatic), her chances of raising the child alone are significant based on her own upbringing and relationship history as well as Gabriel's poor family life growing up. While girls definitely should have positive father figures, I do think that girls raised without positive father figures turn out better than boys raised without them. Finding a positive father figure that isn't actually a father is easier said than done. Many of my choices now are made around the assumption that whoever I marry will leave me at a most inopportune time.

daria,

1) you've got pretty pictures at your website.

2) what decisions do you make around the "assumption that whomever [you] marry will leave you at a most inopportune time?

Congratulations to Halle and Gabriel. Throughout her pregnancy she seemed really happy, like it was the right time for her to have a baby. I'm very happy for both of them.

"Many of my choices now are made around the assumption that whoever I marry will leave me at a most inopportune time."

Daria - I'm sad that you feel that way. What you put out into the universe comes back. Don't project that to the cosmos b/c it will be realized. Yea, that's hippy-dippy therapy talk, but it's true.

souldecirce, career, places to live, etc. I will **never** move from the Northeast because my family's close by and I want them to be close if/when faced with single parenthood. The Northeast is nothing special and I'm not that fond of some of my family members here but the ones that are my security blanket are here. I don't even get along with them all that well and only visit a few times a year, but they are the ones who I know I can count on when faced with such an ordeal. I am very consciously building my own credit. I will maintain my own accounts and our money. I will never shack up with someone I'm not married to. I'm **NEVER** going to not work full-time until I retire. The day I stop getting money from maternity leave, my butt will be back to work.

bmd, it's just a security thing. My mother got screwed big time. She was in grad school. She just had a baby that died after a few miscarriags. Her saving grace was that her parents lived close by. I definitely applaud her for leaving a pretty sweet deal on paper (marry a rich psycho who's barely ever around, live in a mansion, have endless supply of money) to live in a rat-infested already crowded house for YEARS with two young kids until she got back on her feet. It was the right decision, no doubt, but it was rough. If I'm going to be dumped or if I suddenly realize that I'm married to a horrible person, I don't want to be worried about how I'm going to care for myself or provide for my children. Just being practical.

There's a lot going on there. When you keep saying "never" you almost guarantee that the universe is going to throw you a huge kink and make "never" impossible. Ever talk to a therapist? I'm not judging - I'm as wacky and fucked up as they come so I know that talking to someone can help.

Yes and she thinks it's reasonable considering my experiene. Shit, my brother is not getting married. Ever. We thought he was playing but it seriously is never going to happen.

You pretty much have to have a model of a good, healthy relationship to be in one. I'm not close with even one straight adult man. I went from being clingy in my teens to one-foot-out-the-door thinking in romantic relationships. Anyway, let me stop before I start quoting statistics and start recommending reading material that pretty much proves that I (+ Halle) will probably not end up with one person. It's not all bad news. We can always be cougars!