Baby Joy!

After 2 adoptions and a move away from Hollywood, the Doubt star was feeling settled. Then life handed her an unexpected bonus: her first pregnancy—and baby boy!

- Catherine Kast

Katherine Heigl is happiest when she has a plan. “The more order I can keep, the more at ease everyone is because they know what to expect,” she says, settling down at her cozy Utah ranch, where, in addition to raising three kids, she keeps horses, donkeys, goats, chickens and several dogs. “There are a lot of heartbeats around here,” she says. Just as she starts explaining the logistics required to feed that many mouths—and do their laundry—the latest “heartbeat” to join her brood, baby Joshua Bishop Kelley Jr., arrives, squealing, in the arms of his dad, musician Josh Kelley. “Can I give him to you for two seconds?” he asks. Heigl plants a flurry of kisses on the 3-week-old’s cheeks and cradles him. “What’s the matter, handsome?” she coos. “He’s getting spoiled; he always wants to be in someone’s arms.”

Luckily, in the Heigl-Kelley household, there are plenty of arms to go around: Joshua Jr. joins big sisters Naleigh, 8, and Adalaide, 4, as well as Heigl’s neice Madi son, 15 ,who is currently living with the family, and Heigl’s mother, Nancy, 73, who lives nearby and is a frequent visitor, offering support—and occasionally unsolicited advice. In the weeks since Joshua’s Dec. 20 arrival, the actress, 38, has learned to embrace the unexpected. “I’ll be totally honest, my first reaction was ‘Oh s---,’ ” she says of learning she and Kelley, 37, were expecting. “But now we have a new normal, and I have to give myself a break in order to get used to it.”

Heigl’s version of normal is a doozy. With a newborn to contend with, she is also poised for a big-time comeback, with two high-profile projects coming up: Her CBS legal drama,