It’s been 16 years since Nancy O’Dell sat on the Channel 2 anchor desk, but the Myrtle Beach native says she’s still nostalgic for Charleston. She visits whenever she can and hopes to retire here one day with her family.

She says she misses the “friendly Southernness” the most and the community feel of going to the grocery store and maybe seeing someone you know. “L.A. is so spread out, too big and the chances of that happening are next to none.”

O’Dell still keeps in touch with a lot of friends with whom she worked and met while living here.

“To this day probably some of my best girlfriends are those that I met in Charleston – and my high school friends.”

But life has become everything she ever imagined since marrying businessman Keith Zubchevich in 2005 and giving birth to a baby girl at age 41.

O’Dell now spends her days balancing motherhood with reporting entertainment news as co-anchor of the hit TV show Access Hollywood and supporting philanthropic endeavors close to her heart.

Surprise, surprise

Even though she read every pregnancy book available O’Dell says she was still surprised by a lot of aspects of pregnancy. She half joked with friends who’d been through pregnancies that they should’ve warned her of what was to come.

There are certain things people just don’t talk about.

“People don’t automatically just offer this information because they forget that it happened to them.”

And though she carried a thorough list of questions for her doctor with her to every appointment, she says “You don’t know what to ask if you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The game played at one of her baby showers that required guests to write down tips about what she needed to know about labor and delivery and the remainder of her pregnancy only warranted more questions for her doctor.

A book is born

O’Dell says “Full of Life: Mom-to-Mom Tips I Wish Someone Had Told Me When I Was Pregnant” practically wrote itself.

It started while she was creating a scrapbook for daughter

Ashby, now 2. O’Dell’s mom, Betty Humphries, scrapbooked as well.

“It’s so fun to read – and to read it in my mom’s writing. I just found myself writing page after page of all these crazy things that happened to me that were so unexpected or scary or terrifying or surprising or embarrassing, and I realized that there’s such a need for a book like this.”

In the book, O’Dell shares not only her personal experiences while pregnant but also research as to why those things happened. From skin changes to cramps to itching and emotional changes, she recorded all of her insecurities, questions and advice for others in a straightforward and personal way.

She even includes her mom’s recipe for spice cake, which she says is a tasty cure for constipation.

Motherly advice

O’Dell is enjoying motherhood and enjoys playing football with her two stepsons Tyler, 14, Carson, 10, and Ashby, who, having two older brothers, is rambunctious and plays hard.

Ashby is talking now and has already learned to swim.

“She loves the water – we call her Nemo.”

O’Dell says being a mom is the best thing ever.

“You can have the worst day at work or just in general, and come home and see that little face and have her come running up to me and give me the biggest hug. All the bad-day part goes away. It makes life worth living.”

O’Dell’s advice to other parents is to be in the moment and savor it when you’re with your children. Time goes by so quickly.

“We just celebrated her second birthday, I was thinking there is no way that she’s already 2. She’s gone from those days of being a baby to a little girl – and I can’t believe that.”

She knows how tough it can be to balance parenthood with career.

“I’ll turn down a work assignment and then I’m at home (because that’s where I need to be and want to be), and I’ll start thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, is my boss mad at me?’ And I’m not in the moment. You’ve decided to make the decision and you need to enjoy the moment – and be in the moment.”

And when asked if another book is in her future, she says she isn’t ruling it out.

“I definitely could write about the first year.” *