Karen Tanabe, Politico – Congress saw an unprecedented baby boom during the second half of this decade – that is, five babies were born to female members.

When Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers delivered her daughter Grace in December, she became the first congresswoman to have two children while in office. While baby no. 2 made headlines — showing aspiring female politicians that having a baby while serving isn’t just possible, it can be done twice — McMorris Rodgers’s son Cole (born in 2007) also made waves as the first child born to a female member of the House in 12 years.

Only nine children have ever been born to sitting female members of Congress, including the five born from 2007 to 2010 (to Rep. McMorris Rodgers in 2007 and 2010, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in 2008 and Rep. Linda Sanchez in 2009.) Together, these four women have more than doubled the number of babies born before them in the history of women serving in Congress.

An uptick in younger women serving on the Hill may make congressional babies more likely, but that doesn’t make having a child while in office any easier.

“I’m still learning how to successfully juggle Congress and motherhood,” McMorris Rodgers told POLITICO. “For me, I see a couple of advantages to being in Congress,” she said, “including a flexible schedule that allows me to spend quality time with my son that other women may not have.”

Still, the job requires crisscrossing the nation and, often, staying late to vote.

“The biggest challenge is finding enough hours in the day to meet the vital needs of my son and family while continuing to be responsive to the needs and issues facing the people of eastern Washington,” said McMorris Rodgers, who represents Washington’s 5th District.

Despite keeping a schedule that has her juggling more often than a Cirque du Soleil performer, the mother of two is hoping to show women with political aspirations that it is possible to do it all. As the National Republican Congressional Committee’s lead recruiter for women last cycle, McMorris Rodgers said she helped lure Martha Roby, also a mother of two, and now the Rep.-elect for Alabama’s 2nd District.

“Can you make it work?” Roby asked McMorris Rodgers, who answered with an honest “yes.”

“My husband, Brian, and I make it work,” McMorris Rodgers said, “with love and support and a willingness to be flexible and compromise.

Most working mothers would agree that a support network is vital to managing a successful career while taking care of a new baby. But when your job involves a regular slog to Washington D.C., that assistance may be hundreds or thousands of miles away.

“When I decided to have a child, the first thing I thought about is that when you’re in D.C., you really don’t have the support network that you have in your district,” Sanchez, who represents California’s 39th District, told POLITICO. “The difficulty with this job is that the votes can be unpredictable, and you’re scrambling to find coverage.”

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