NEW YORK - It's crunch time for Marissa Jaret Winokur, who is busy preparing for the birth of her first child.

The baby boy, scheduled to be born July 22, is being carried by a surrogate mother. Winokur, who had cervical cancer seven years ago, and writer-husband Judah Miller plan to name the baby Zev.

The 35-year-old actress was busy unpacking boxes of baby furniture, she told The Associated Press in a phone interview from her Los Angeles home Thursday.

"I said to my husband, I'm like, `You thought you were gonna get away with not living with a pregnant woman' but I'm the most hormonal — like every commercial makes me cry," she said. "I'm like, oh my god, we're having a baby!"

Winokur, who won a Tony in 2003 for her role in "Hairspray," said she had "never been this overwhelmed about anything!"

"I'm like so emotional and I'm like, `I just want everything to be perfect and done,' and it's like, it will never be perfect and it will never be all done," she told the AP.

Winokur said Miller assembled a crib Wednesday night and "had to make sure (each screw) was double-checked, triple-checked. He was so nervous that something was gonna fall apart."

She said her surrogate, a married mother of four whom she met through an agency, will be part of the baby's life "forever."

"She's, right now, my closest friend," Winokur said. "I love that I have one best friend that I can always talk to ... and she'll never get sick of it, whereas my other friends might be like, `All right, we know: the baby's coming, you're totally stressed, we get it.'"

Winokur is also planning to shoot a pilot in the next few months for a talk show focusing on women's issues. She was inspired to take the gig during her recent run on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

"That show truly made me feel like, `Oh, I can do anything,'" she said.

Source: AP