Production seems to be crawling, the public is demanding to be fed showbiz news, laid-off workers are feeling the need to be cradled and rocked. � Everything in the world of showbiz seems to be related to infancy.

Maybe it�s just me. I recently returned from a maternity leave that began June 4 and every day, my daughter is metamorphosing on a daily basis � as does every aspect of showbiz.

Having a baby alters one�s perspective. The daily grind seems less important, so this seemed like a good time to shut off the BlackBerry and power down the laptop for a few months. And yet � being away from work, the news seemed somehow more urgent. The dizzying pace of change seems to have accelerated.

My eight-hour-a-night sleep regimen wasn�t the only thing that took a hit. My official absence might have been the most eventful 19 weeks in modern Hollywood.

June 18: At 7:16 p.m., Josephine Beatrice Siegel arrived, weighing a healthy 7 lbs. 1 oz. Within 24 hours of her first breath, two execs were taking their last breaths as leaders of Paramount�s film ranks: studio prexy John Lesher and production prez Brad Weston.

Studio flack Patti Rockenwagner delivered the press release on a Friday afternoon (the favored day for announcing such high-profile exits). As I read the reports from my Cedars hospital room amid a deep Vicodin daze, I was surprised. Still, nothing that takes place on the Melrose lot should shock anyone given that the studio is in a perpetual state of flux. (Not long afterward, Rockenwagner herself would announce plans to �pursue another opportunity.�)

July 27: Around the same time I was abandoning the futile practice of swaddling, NBC�s Ben Silverman was being sprung from the network.

Sept. 18: Josephine turned 3 months old, entering the so-called smiley phase of babyhood. But no smiles from Dick Cook as he stepped down as Disney chairman (another Friday afternoon exit).

Oct. 5: As Josephine was rolling over, heads were rolling at Universal. Marc Shmuger and David Linde exited, while Adam Fogelson was named chairman and Donna Langley co-chairman. The studio�s official press release didn�t even mention the departing duo until the eighth paragraph.

Oct. 13: As my husband and I went over our budget for a four-person family, 20th Century Fox was dealing with its own budget. The studio, which prides itself on being fiscally responsible, felt (like Paramount) it was paying two people � Alex Young and Emma Watts � to do the job of one production prexy. Young, like Weston earlier in the summer, was deemed expendable and segued to a producing gig.

Compared to my previous leave � a 3�-month frame in 2006 when absolutely nothing happened � it seemed an extraordinarily busy season.

After I returned to work on Oct. 15, I wondered if the revolving door would stop spinning. Nope. On Oct. 19, Warner Bros. production prexy Kevin McCormick announced that he was stepping down from his post. Then 11 days later � on a Friday afternoon, of course � Daniel Battsek exited Miramax.

So, is Hollywood somehow moving faster? The simple answer is yes, given that amid a deep global recession and increasingly impatient corporate overlords, studios have far less room for error than ever before. Constant change, rather than long-standing stability, has become the modus operandi.

Hollywood hasn�t slowed to a crawl at all. Likewise, Josephine seems to be heading toward that milestone at warp speed.