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"I don't want the fact that I work and travel to get in the way of being a good mom," she said. "I love my job and I adore my baby. The two just work together."

But the statistical training specialist with SAS also has learned some hard lessons while taking her 6-month old daughter on business trips. Two weeks ago, she missed a connecting flight while tending to her daughter's diaper.

"It was a rookie mistake. I forgot to look at the clocks inside the airport," she said.

Truxillo and her daughter Elizabeth Romaine had to spend the night in Chicago with just a diaper bag. Since Truxillo is nursing, the baby had plenty to eat.

So far, Truxillo has taken her daughter on three business trips, to Seattle, New York, and Austin, Texas. She usually buys an extra ticket for her mother. She meets them at their destination and helps watch Elizabeth.

"She loves to travel and she loves getting the grandbaby time," Truxillo said.

Pros and cons

For Stultz, bringing his son along on trips has its benefits and drawbacks.

When he traveled alone, the drive down from the Washington area to Cary took about four hours. Now, with bathroom breaks and other rest stops for his son, it can take as long as six hours.

"If I don't time it right, it can be a bit of a rough trip," Stultz said. Books and DVDs can only placate a child for so long before you have to stop and let them run off some energy.

"I know exactly which rest stops have playgrounds," he said.

During this last trip, Stultz had to get up about an hour or so earlier on Tuesday morning to get his son ready and get to the office on time. Since Luke was off his regular sleep schedule, it was hard to wake him up, Stultz said. And at breakfast, Luke did what most 3-year-olds do -- he ate slowly and talked nonstop.

"It was a bit of a balancing act to get him to eat up and get out of the hotel," said Stultz, who has two other sons, ages 4 and 1.

Stultz braced himself for tears when he dropped Luke off at the Bright Horizons day care center in Cary. But to his surprise, Luke just walked in and started playing with toys.

Later that evening, Stultz and his son attended a cookout hosted by a co-worker.

"It's rare that I have one-on-one time with one of my boys," Stultz said.

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