‘I don’t even know what we were doing before Alessia, you know. She’s going on 6 months and it seems like she has been here forever. You just don’t remember what you were doing before, so it’s just cool,” says 24-year-old Michelle Eisenstein, left, as she and her partner, Will Irene, 27, play with their daughter at Helios coffee shop in Raleigh.

The couple walk a few blocks from their apartment at least a couple of times a week to wind down from a busy work day and spend time with their daughter. “I try to do the same things I did before I had her — go out to cafes, go out to eat. I haven’t figured out the dancing thing yet, but maybe we’ll leave her with Grandma for that occasion,” says Eisenstein. Irene agrees but says, “The way that I appreciate the night life is much different now. My nightlife might consist more of dinner out in a nonsmoking vicinity and we finish a bit early.”

The couple both work full time at Southern States Nissan of Apex. “I don’t consider us the stereotypical family. The person who works 9-to-5 or the stay-at-home mom,” Eisenstein says. “You know, I thought about doing that, but I like to work and I think it’s very doable to have kids and work the job you want to. And as far as spending time with a child, so many people think ‘time, time, lots of time,’ but it’s not quantity, it’s quality. We may not spend as much time as your average couple does, you know, day in and day out hours straight in a row, but the quality of time that we do spend with her is very good.”