Twenty million records sold, Mexico’s most famous telenovela actress, marriage to music mogul Tommy Mottola, new digs in Palm Beach — there are many reasons one could be jealous of the superstar Thalia.
But for anyone who has ever waddled her way into a delivery room, here is the biggest reason: Thalia says she felt sexy even when she was nine months pregnant!
Flip through her new guide to pregnancy, Radiante, and you might believe her. The book, written with the help of Thalia’s OBGYN, Dr. Andrew R. Kramer of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, is packed with specific, practical tips for everything from battling nausea to selecting the best looking stretchy jeans to breast-feeding to loosing the baby weight.
While Thalia does admit in the book to feeling “tired, fatter, crankier, and less inclined to do anything other than take it easy” at times during her third trimester, she still managed to do leg lifts and arm curls in bed to make it easier to fit into her skinny jeans later.
Throughout the book are inspirational (or maddening, depending on how pregnant you may be when you read this and how many cupcakes you may have eaten) photos of a pregnant Thalia looking, well, radiant.
We spoke with Thalia, 37, by phone from New York and her new mommy glow practically radiated through the telephone line …

What is your 19-month-old daughter Sabrina doing now?
The ABCs, the 123s. She talks to me in Spanish and talks to her father in English. She is a hurricane. She is unstoppable!

You say in your book that pregnancy is the time to wear fitted styles not baby doll dresses and mumus. Why?
Back in the day it was big tents with a lot of bows and big fabric. It’s not good. It’s better for you to be a little more showing, revealing.
Fitted clothes look slimmer, make you look taller, make you look like you own your pregnancy and want to show the whole world how beautiful you are.

What do you say to pregnant women who may not feel beautiful?
A lot of women feel embarrassed with their own bodies when they are pregnant or their husbands make them feel they have lost the feminine side. They think they look fat, bad, like a frog, like a pig. I have to stop friends and tell them, “Don’t say that anymore! You are a vessel of life … You are creating life, so embrace that.”

You are a famously sexy woman. Did you really feel sexy when you were pregnant?
I think I was the most sexy while I was pregnant. The hormones make a special glow. You see it when you walk in the street and guys look at you differently.
I was touching myself saying, “Wow this is incredible!”

Seriously, you felt sexy the entire time?
Except the terrible first three first months. The first trimester is a little awkward. It was a very, very difficult time for me. Very nauseating. But then I learned tips.
Having crackers beside my bed on my night table was good. I would pop five or 10 crackers first thing.

What is the biggest challenge of pregnancy and motherhood?
Coming back from the hospital to your home. Nobody prepares you for this. Nobody tells you how bad you are going to hurt, how bloody this is going to be, how weird everything is in your body…
It’s reinventing your life with this new addition to your life and your family. It depends on you how easy or how terribly uncomfortable and depressing it could be.

Did you avoid feeling anxious or depressed?
When you come home it’s, “OK, now what? How will I do this? Why is she crying so much? I change her, I feed her. What can I do? She is still crying!”
With all of these challenges you have to be in a great calm state of mind, and if you are losing that then having help is not bad. Having your mother, your best friend, your baby’s father … You have to go with the flow and not fight it.

Tell me about your life in Florida?
Palm Beach is beautiful. We enjoy the ocean. We enjoy the community here … It is a very peaceful place. I feel so free to do whatever I want to do here.

What do you do with your beautiful hair in the Florida humidity?
The water here is a little hard, so I take extra care before I go to the ocean or pool. I take a shower and wet my hair and put a mask on … Kerastase, they have this nice mask. I tie my hair up and I just go. When I jump into the water it doesn’t eat your hair that bad.

Has your career slowed down because of motherhood?
Not really … I’m writing songs for my next project. I’m always promoting things like my book. I’m always working, always doing … Mothers have to do everything.

Is your husband helpful with the baby. Does he understand all that you do as a mother?
My husband, thank God, he is on top of it. He is like seriously devoted to the two girls in his life … He understands it, but you have to be the mother to understand it completely.

Will you incorporate the experience of motherhood into your songs?
Yes. Why not. I write songs for my daughter all the time. She loves them!

What was your birth experience like? Did you feel prepared?
I did a lot of homework in this area. I did my breathing exercises, auto hypnosis kind of classes, everything in the brochure they tell you to do … But it was like hours and hours and hours — 33 hours! Nobody told me about 33 hours! But you know, at the end of the day everything is beautiful.

Did you have an epidural?
I thought, “No epidural. I can do it myself. Mind over matter.” But 28 hours into it I said, “Please give me an epidural right now!” I told the man who gave it to me, “You are the most handsome man I have ever seen!”

Will you have more children?
Definitely. I just want more Sabrinas everywhere!

Thalia’s tips
Hydrotherapy for frustrating or uncomfortable days ‘One day I ran to the pharmacy and bought a bathing chair — the kind for geriatrics — parked my pregnant self in that chair, and let the shower water rain down on me for hours. The effects were calming, cleansing and pretty much immediate.’

Work it
‘Structured jackets and blazers are also great for hiding the early bump and giving contour to the body.’

Bosom buddies
‘The physiology of every mother-baby combination is so individually nuanced that essentially there is no “right way” to breast-feed. The trick is to experiment with a variety of positions to discover what works best for you.’

Pump it up
‘After you pump a few times you will get used to the sensation, your boobs will toughen up, and, as with everything else, you just learn to deal.’

Beating ‘the pukes’
‘Here are my personal favorite remedies for combating nausea: Cinnamon gum (never mint), Cheerios and Lucky Charms, fruit Popsicles, matzo ball soup, sour-apple candies or lollipops, sparkling water with lime and salt (which in Mexico we call sueritos), Wasa crackers.’

— Amy Royster