Governor 7 mths pregnant at 44

Gov. Sarah Palin dropped a day-ending bombshell Wednesday.

She's pregnant.

The 44-year-old Palin said that she and her husband, Todd, are expecting their fifth child sometime in mid-May.

"I will be delivering an addition to the first family," she told a stunned group of reporters.

Indeed, she hardly looks seven months pregnant. Just two months ago she was modeling for fashion magazine Vogue.

She spent that day posing, a fresh layer of snow serving as the backdrop at her home in Wasilla, about 40 miles north of Anchorage.

"It was surreal for a while," she said. "It really hadn't all sunk in."

The Republican governor, now in her second year as Alaska's chief executive, said she does not believe the pregnancy will affect her ability to run the state. Palin has been mentioned as a potential running mate on the Republican presidential ticket.

She said her work as Wasilla mayor had only a brief interruption when she had her youngest daughter, Piper, six years ago.

"I had Piper on a Monday and I was back to work on a Tuesday," Palin said. "I even brought her to work with me."

Todd Palin, a worker in the North Slope oil fields, is on leave from his job with oil giant BP.

If Palin does deliver in May, it won't interfere with the regular session, which is scheduled to end April 13.

Back on the maternity front, Palin wouldn't disclose whether the child will be a boy or a girl because she hadn't shared that with their children yet.

The other Palin children are: Track, 18; Bristol, 17; Willow, 13; and Piper, 6.

Source: http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/030608/sta_254443377.shtml

Category: 44