Kate's Way

Kate Hudson is happy she made ``Raising Helen'' before she became a mother.

In the comedy she plays a career gal whose life is disrupted when she inherits her sibling's three children.

``I always wanted to be a mom, you know, and when I read the script, it was obviously something that hit home for me,'' Hudson said during a recent press conference. ``I was at a time where I was thinking about having kids, so it kind of fit in perfectly to my mind-set at the time.

``But I did have moments where I was in the midst of the three kids all talking to me at once, and I just went, `Is this what my life is gonna be like? All of a sudden, all of this craziness?' ''

Craziness came when it was time to deliver her son, Ryder Russell, in January and paparazzi followed her and husband, Black Crowes rocker Chris Robinson, to the hospital.

``I was going in to get induced because the baby was so big, and then my hips weren't opening; I wasn't dilating,'' she said. ``And I was actually in labor. I was two to five minutes apart, couldn't feel anything, but no pain. And the doctor said I could go home, but it was such a pain in the (butt) to get in the hospital because we were being stalked by people. We just went in at, like, midnight, and I was like, `I am not going home. I just don't want to do this again. Let's just have a C-section,' and so I got drugged up.''

Hudson had guards posted outside her room. ``Having guys dress up in scrubs to get into the hospital is sad,'' she said. ``It's just the nature of what the importance of what celebrity is today, unfortunately. I think that it's pretty bad for everybody now.''

Ryder, 8 pounds, 11 ounces at birth and now 4 months old, is being nursed on set. Hudson, who was proud of gaining 60 pounds during her pregnancy (``I kind of figured, `Why do I need to watch my weight when I'm pregnant?' I mean, I'm gonna eat whatever the hell I want to eat.''), had to lose that weight to film the upcoming psychological thriller ``The Skeleton Key.'' But the Caesarean meant she could do nothing the first six-and-a-half weeks.

``I'm OK being big,'' she said. ``It felt like everybody else was more worried about it than I was when I was losing the weight. I just knew that when I started shooting, I didn't want to get two months into it and then all of a sudden drop my weight drastically from being, you know, 145 pounds to 118. So I worked out every day - two hours to three hours a day, for about two-and-a-half months.

``I did lose the weight pretty fast, she said. ``I mean, most of it. I still got a little bit to go. But more importantly, I didn't care. It was just more about making this film.''

``The Skeleton Key'' has been physically demanding. ``Climbing up two-story trellises and running in the mud and knocking myself on crashing cars, I've got bruises all up and down my body - and it's fun,'' Hudson said.

It's also hard with 18-hour days interrupted by nursing, followed by middle-of-the-night feedings. ``I grew up in this, so I just kind of look at it and say, `How lucky am I as a working mother that I can have my baby with me?' '' said the daughter of Goldie Hawn and musician Bill Hudson. ``It's just hard because the time that I spend with him when I'm working is just nursing instead of being able to play and do all that stuff, so I can only do that in the morning and at night. Then I'm nursing at night, so that means that I'm not getting a whole lot of sleep. But everything is beautiful, you know? I wouldn't ask for anything different.''

Actually, Hudson might ask for a hit. Her first starring vehicle, ``How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,'' scored $106 million and Hollywood put her on a pedestal. However, her two pictures last summer, ``Alex and Emma'' and ``Le Divorce,'' bombed, grossing a mere $21 million between them.``Raising Helen'' is being sold solely on Hudson's name.

Does she feel the pressure?

``Hey, if it's a big hit - fantastic! It'll be so exciting for me. And if it's not, then it's not. I don't worry about my work because I know how hard I work at it, and I think people in the business know that, so I hope that that wouldn't affect my career.''