We haven't seen much of Kellie Martin in the last few years -- a couple of Lifetime movies, some guest shots, and that's about it -- but it's been for a good reason: she took the time off to figure out how to be a parent.

After her daughter Maggie was born three-and-a-half years ago, Martin told me last week, "I didn't want to get overwhelmed with having to feel like I had to work and not have this time with her." She read every parenting book she could find, but parenting was still a mystery to her. "I had no idea what to do with a kid, I mean I was clueless, so I needed some time to figure this out."

This week, audiences will see Martin twice: Fans of Lifetime's 'Drop Dead Diva' will see Martin guest star on July 11 as the victim of a Ponzi scheme who hires Grayson Kent to take her case. And on July 16, Martin will star in NBC's 'The Jensen Project' as Claire Thompson, a nanobiologist who works with her husband and 15-year-old son to fight evil when the project they spent years developing falls into the wrong hands. If the show, produced by Wal-Mart and Proctor and Gamble as part of their 'Family Moments' series, does well, it has a shot of being made into a series.

But before we talked about that, I needed to express my shock that the 'Life Goes On' and 'ER' star was old enough to play the mom of a teenager (she's only 35, for heaven's sakes)...

Actress Kellie Martin gave birth to a baby girl over the weekend. She and her husband, Keith Christian, named their daughter Margaret Heather Christian, but they're already calling her "Maggie". Reps for the couple say Maggie weighed in at 8 pounds and was 21 inches long.

Kellie Martin, 31, is probably best known for her role as Becca Thatcher on Life Goes On during the early 1990s. She also had a memorable guest stint on ER a few years ago as Lucy Knight, who met an unfortunate end in a terrific episode.