Jamie Lynn Spears returns as country singer

CEBU, Philippines - Fans weren’t the only ones shocked when Jamie Lynn Spears announced that she was pregnant in December 2007. Then 16, the “Zoey 101” star retreated to her home state of Louisiana to raise Maddie, her daughter with ex-boyfriend Casey Aldridge.

Now 22, Britney Spears’ little sister opens up about her life as a mom and an aspiring country singer in an exclusive interview with E! News.

“I was riding around in my mom’s little convertible and I had not been feeling well. I thought it was just stress with work and all kinds of different things. My friend was like, ‘Why don’t you just take a test?’ I was like, ‘Okay, I will.’ We were filling up with gas, so I went in the gas station and took the test and it was positive,” she recalls. “So that is the glamorous way that I found out I was going to have my little nugget!”

Naturally, Jamie Lynn had a tough time accepting the news. “This made no sense. I didn’t understand it and I was young,” she admits.

Now that her daughter is older, Jamie Lynn is ready to get back into the spotlight. Before she releases her debut disc, however, she’ll duet with Britney on the latter’s song, “Chillin’ With You.” The track will be featured on Britney’s eighth studio album, “Britney Jean.”

“I don’t think you just wake up one morning and decide you’re going to sing. It’s something I’ve always done,” says Jamie Lynn, who is currently engaged to love of two years Jamie Watson. “But as a young child, all that was offered to me. You don’t know how to say, like, ‘Oh, this is what I want for the rest of my life.’ You can’t make those kind of decisions at 10 years old.”

Jamie Lynn is excited — if not a little nervous — to share her music with the world. “It’s seeing it all here and it’s real,” she says. “It’s like, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m really gonna do this.’ It’s like my second baby.” (FREEMAN)