Earlier this week, a baby girl made quite the untimely entrance into the world. The weather was nearly constant rain -- and typical of traffic conditions in bad weather in D.C. -- mom, dad and arriving baby got stuck in traffic on the Beltway on the way to the hospital.

On dad's distress call, you can hear him saying, "Baby's head is out, baby's head is out." And later, "The baby is out, the baby is out, the baby is out."

Needless to say, dad was not the calm, cool and collected person our birthing instructor told dads to be. But would you be?

Stories like this remind me how lucky I am that I made it to the hospital during the birth of second son. His labor was one of those quickie births you never expect. First labor pains at 11:15 p.m.; baby pops his head out to the world: 12:30 a.m.

The only time I ever yelled at husband in two births was during that drive to the hospital. I could feel myself ready to push. Needless to say, I wasn't all that calm. Husband said, "Don't worry, honey, the baby is coming." My response: "DON'T SAY THOSE WORDS!" At the time, I was afraid to tell him how close the baby was to arriving in the car. After all, he was driving and I didn't want a freaked-out driver on my hands.

How about you? Any fun or interesting birth stories to share? Anyone else have a near-car-delivery story?

If you have a chance to get your hands on Medela's new breast pump, the Freestyle, you'll be amazed. No more lugging a backpack-sized breast pump everywhere. Plus, besides being a pump that fits in the palm of your hand and weighs less than 1 pound, the $380 unit promises to be hands-free. It works off of a lithium ion rechargeable battery, so pumping moms can make milk without always connecting to the wall.

Sound too good to be true? Well, that's just what I wondered after seeing the unit. All I needed was some testers willing to bare (and bear) their milking in public. For that I turned to nursing moms around The Washington Post building. Here's what they had to say ... and for you squeamish men who cringe at TMI, it's time to click away:

Amy Joyce: The Pump of Perfection or a Disaster?

*Note: Amy's editor high-tailed it away as fast as she could when I approached with the Medela box. So, clearly, TMI isn't just for men.

When I was asked to test drive the Freestyle, I thought sure, but what do I care? I'm down to pumping just once a day. I knew if it was perfect, I'd curse the manufacturers for not coming up with it sooner. A disaster? I'd curse them for wasting my time.

My conclusion: It was a little bit of both.

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Sara Kehaulani Goo: A Hassle to Set Up, But...

While I am a fan of breast-feeding and want my son to have all the benefits of breast milk, the task of pumping twice a day while at work has quickly become a chore. As a multitasker, I can attest it is difficult to text message on your BlackBerry and hold the pump correctly on your breasts at the same time. So the idea of a hands-free pump was really appealing: I could take back those 25 minutes a day that I felt so squeezed to give up at work by multitasking as I pump!

But as soon as I opened the box, I could see why Medela provided a warning. There are no fewer than 10 separate pieces to assemble this contraption and it took me a half-hour to read through the manual and figure out how to put it together.

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Lori Montgomery: A Quantum-Leap Improvement

There were problems right off the bat, starting with the breast cones. They were too small and chafed. I was able to swap out my larger cones, but that made the whole apparatus protrude a good six to eight inches from my chest. As I puttered around the kitchen, cones sucking, pump droning, my husband started referring to me as "the borg."

But later ...

This time, I just sat down at the darn table, put the pump on it and tucked the breast cones into my (non-nursing) bra, as I've been doing for months. (You can actually drive this way.) And, for some reason -- whether because the battery was finally fully charged or because the shield apparatus was finally correctly snapped together -- the pump worked great.

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By Ju-Don Marshall Roberts

There are many lessons I've learned in my 11 years as a mom, but the biggest has been learning to forgive my own mother for all the flaws my rebellious teenage self once condemned her for. Back then, I had a litany of complaints. Like most teenagers, I was right, and she was wrong, and that was that.

Our relationship improved after I left for college, but there were still too many wounds left unhealed from our most turbulent years. So, we discovered a different kind of closeness -- a pseudo closeness that allowed us to talk like friends as long as we didn't deal with the past.

Several years ago, my mother and I were talking and I knew she was still carrying the weight of the past. "Mommy," I said, "I forgive you. You did the best you knew how to do."

"That means a lot to me," she said. And then we talked about things we had left unsaid for far too long.

I can honestly say that it was my own motherhood that allowed me to see my mother through different eyes -- allowed me to speak words of forgiveness and let go of the past. Each day, I try to make the best decisions for my children. Sometimes, I get it right. Other times, I fall short: My work-life balance is out of whack; I'm impatient; I'm tired; I need "me time"; or I'm a little too tough on them.

I see my own flaws, and it gives me a deeper appreciation for my mother -- for all mothers (and fathers) who do their best and, yet, sometimes fall short of their own expectations and those of their children. One day, my children -- I suspect once the terrible teens take hold -- will be old enough to articulate their judgment of my parenting skills. And if the best (or worst) they can say is, "She did the best she knew how to do," I'll be happy with that.

What lessons have you learned from your mother or other mothers? What impact have they had on how you parent your children?

Ju-Don Marshall Roberts is managing editor of washingtonpost.com.

AddictingGames.com. BarbieGirls.com. Club Penguin. EverythingGirl.com. Lego.com. NickJr.com.

These are just a sampling of children's Web sites 1.0. They are geared to our kids' generation -- a group that is growing up with computers from Day 1. And these sites and others have raised some eyebrows at Consumer Reports' WebWatch. In a recently released study called "Like Taking Candy from a Baby: How Young Children Interact with Online Environments" WebWatch both advises parents and raises questions about the virtual worlds kids see.

"The games we observed vary widely in quality, in educational value, and in their developmental match with children's abilities. Such mismatches often result in frequent cries for help. Of the sites we observed, PBS KIDS and Sesame Street contained content of the highest educational value. NOGGIN's games were some of the best designed. Club Penguin and Webkinz delivered the best overall experience," the study says.

But playing these games isn't all fun and games for kids or parents. Using a small sample size of 10 families who videotaped game usage diaries, WebWatch saw:

* Children downloading programs that altered settings on their parents' computers.

* A six-year-old typing his mother's e-mail address into an entry window to win a toy.

* Many Web sites geared to making kids -- ahem, parents -- pay to play the good stuff.

* Sites that "frequently tantalize children, presenting enticing options and even threats that their online creations will become inaccessible unless a purchase is made."

* Free trials that weren't really free -- at least not for long.

* Highly commercialized Web sites across the board. "Even nonprofit content providers such as PBS KIDS and Sesame Workshop display logos of sponsors or underwriters, though not always in areas of the site designated for children," the report notes.

What's your experience been with Web sites targeted to kids? Are you around when your kids are playing them? Do the ads and commercialization bother them and you? Has your child inadvertently downloaded something you didn't expect -- or want -- on your computer?