Despite that appetite, Huffman predicts that Parker will snap back into shape quickly. "She didn't gain an ounce of fat," Huffman says. "It's all baby. She has this great belly and nothing else." If that's not depressing enough for new mothers everywhere, try this: Because Parker rubbed "a lot of cocoa butter on her tummy," Huffman also prophesies, "there won't be any stretch marks."

Parker did, however, notice changes in her self-image. "I've actually stopped looking (in a mirror), because I think it's so odd to see a shape like this," Parker confessed in an Oct. 16 appearance on Today. "But I didn't realize how odd it was until my husband walked into the bathroom the other day, and he got a really stunned expression on his face. He almost blanched. And he just said, 'My God, you're huge.'"

Fortunately, Broderick -- who, according to Huffman, was willing to "do whatever Sarah asked him to do" throughout her entire pregnancy -- can be sensitive too. In June, at a time when Parker's back ached and she often had to sleep braced by pillows, she told PEOPLE, "I have to switch sleeping positions with Matthew almost every night. Poor Matthew. He's been great."

Both actors have approached their child's birth with an infectious joy, born, perhaps, of their mutually longstanding desire to become parents. In 1992, the year they began dating, Parker (the fourth of eight children) spoke of wanting to have kids; in '97, the year they married, she sharpened her vision to "two boys and a girl." Two years ago Broderick, the youngest of three, said, "I like kids. We'd like to have them." Throughout his yearlong run in The Producers, he also spoke of his desire to become a dad. But while high living never posed an obstacle -- unlike Carrie Bradshaw, Sarah "is a real homebody," according to her sister-in-law Kim Parker -- the couple's work schedules did. "Matthew and I were never in the same place in the two-day window that is best for getting pregnant," Parker told Elle in September.