It's a Girl!

Malin O'Brien Denton
      March 22
7 lbs. 5 oz. o 18 in.

This one was a piece of cake," says Desperate Housewives star James Denton, who welcomed daughter Malin O'Brien Denton into the world March 22 at L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. "I got my wife's permission to say that."

By all accounts, Malin's five-hour labor was a breeze compared with the 49-hour ordeal Denton's wife, Erin O'Brien, a personal trainer, endured during the birth of their first child, son Sheppard, 2. "It's a big relief," says Denton, 42. "We're really fortunate and thankful." Now O'Brien, 40, and baby are resting at the family's new three-bedroom, Spanish-style home in Glendale, and Sheppard is trying to get used to his new sister. "He is not too happy to crawl into the bed in the middle of the night and find there's somebody else getting Mommy's attention," says Denton with a laugh.

For his part, Denton plans to do plenty of diaper duty since he shoots only two or three days a week. After all, he says, "it's not called Desperate Plumber." And with the show firmly entrenched in the Top 5, "I'm so happy to have a job with security," he says. Well, almost, adds the actor: "Now we are all worried about who's going to get killed off next."

PHOTO (COLOR): "Malin's healthy, my wife's healthy, and the labor was pretty easy," says Denton (at home with wife Erin and their newborn daughter). "I can't complain a bit."