Blue or Pink States

"Some of my Washington friends ribbed me for what they perceived to be a real lack of prudent planning of these major life-changing events," she says.

Conway finds it distasteful when people "glibly" talk about their babymaking schedule or announce that they're putting off getting pregnant until, say, a Supreme Court justice is confirmed.

"Everybody just assumes you plan your pregnancies," Conway says. "Everybody just assumes that God and Mother Nature have nothing to do with the natural stages of life anymore."

The thing about elections is, there's always another one coming up. There are new candidates and new campaign aides and new reporters to write about them. It is quite possible to jump from one campaign to the next and never find time for a baby.

"My job was to plan and to see around corners and to know what was coming and plan everything out so meticulously," says Mindy Tucker Fletcher, 37, a former spokeswoman for the 2000 Bush campaign and later deputy campaign manager for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2006 reelection campaign.

Fletcher lives in San Diego now. Recently, she's been trying to get pregnant. She and her husband have tried fertility treatments. She wishes she hadn't waited so long, wishes she'd known how hard it would be. She wishes she'd known that the "adrenaline rush," the thrill of being needed and being in the midst of the news, was a trade-off. That the political cycles are infinite, but the eggs are not.

"I wish I'd known earlier," Fletcher says. "I would have worked it into my life plan."