Baby news pops up on several fronts: TV, radio and playing field

KARE11 weekend anchor Amy Hockert is expecting her first baby in July.

"It's kind of all I can think about right now," said Hockert. "It's fun and overwhelming. I don't know what to say; this is my first time going through this, so it's all new."

Hockert said viewers are finally sending her more e-mail on the development. "You know how we are as Minnesotans. We're a little gun-shy to ask those kinds of questions; you never know."

Yeah, Hockert could just be getting fat because she's so happy with Chris, the U.S. State Department employee she married in July 2006.

"I hear more from moms, who are quicker to pick up on it," said Hockert. "It's finally getting to the point where I think it's getting a little bit more obvious and I need to start investing in some maternity clothes. I've been putting that off as long as I could."

Chris of the State Department has missed out on a couple of months of morning sickness. "He's in Baghdad right now, but he'll be back soon and will remain stateside until the baby is born."

Hockert knows but is not telling the sex of the baby. Handicapping-wise, it does seem as if girls come from drinking the water at KARE.

Kupchella has two girls, Diana Pierce had one. "Julie [Nelson] has two, Mike Pomeranz has two. Kim Insley has two and I believe Tim [McNiff] has two," Hockert said.

'A dream baby' "If we manage to pop another one out like this who sleeps, has a full head of hair and is this cute, we're going to have to start selling them," said B96's Miss Shannan.

Baby Dominic arrived March 2 at the very reasonable hour of 4:35 p.m., weighing 7 pounds, 1 ounce.

"Conor [her husband] and I are astounded. He's very contemplative, we'll say. He is a dream baby. He sleeps through the night, wakes up, gets fed, goes right back to sleep," she said Monday. "We're very happy. We're in the kitchen loading the dishwasher. He's in his little swing watching me.

"Everybody doesn't believe me when I say he has a full head of hair, like he-needs-a-haircut head of hair. If it wasn't for his size, you would think he's a lot older.

Too busy with her own home talk show, so to speak, Miss Shannan missed the "Today" show segments featuring Texas' amazing Elizabeth Barrett, 17 months old, who can read. "That's what we want," said Miss Shannan. "We're going to do the sign language thing, because we read that can be great."

No word on paternity Still monitoring larry-fitzgerald.com for news about whether Junior was the daddy.

Angela Nazario, a former NFL cheerleader, filed a 2007 lawsuit in Arizona alleging that Holy Angels alum Larry Fitzgerald Jr., star receiver of the Cardinals, was the father of a baby she was scheduled to deliver Jan. 8. Since that due date, I have periodically called Larry Fitzgerald Sr., a Spokesman-Recorder sports columnist and managing partner of the National Programming Network, to ask whether he's a grandpa yet. He has not responded to my messages, and according to various sports sources, Big Fitz is very angry with me. Oh, well.

Ours has been a playful love-hate professional relationship. But the hate may be winning out, as I got an e-mail from a "Robyn Miller," that has a surrogate vibe about it.

"Where's the baby news? Hasn't Mr. Fitzgerald Sr. called you personally to give you an exclusive update and interview, including baby pictures? I guess when you don't have facts to use, you'll grasp for anything to make yourself look knowledgeable, and I guess that when you aren't as close to a family as you say you are, you get no news either," wrote huffy Miller.

Don't know what to make of not hearing from Big Fitz, if Junior's not the daddy; have also been trying to reach Nazario's lawyer and the reporter for nationalledger.com, who broke the paternity lawsuit story.