How do you juggle it all?

Ethan and I keep finding ourselves in conversation deja vu: How do we juggle Baby, our careers, exercise, sleep, chores, social commitments, and life "stuff" — all without completely sacrificing our own sanity (and maybe even finding a few precious minutes for relaxation, or seeing an edifying film like Breaking Dawn)?

Before we have kids, we prepare and prepare for Baby's needs — but what about our own? No one teaches you how to get your life organized and running like a well-oiled machine so that you can put in those extra hours at work, get your kid to swim class, find time to take that (quick) run, and go on a "date night" — all while taking good care of yourself and not snapping at your husband, wife, or (worse) your baby.

I know there's that saying about how you can't prioritize family, work, and your social life all at once (or is it family, work, and your health? I forget) but I'm not willing to accept that just yet. Sure, we can't all literally "have it all" — if you work a 100-hour week, chances are you don't have rock-hard abs and oodles of time to take your daughter to the playground. But can we achieve some amount of balance if we make the right compromises and adjustments? And is an ongoing conversation the only way to make it happen, by constantly reevaluating, trial and error, and a lot of "I'm gonna go to the gym — you take the kids this time" negotiating?*

How do you do it?

*Has anyone else noticed that it's way more enjoyable — even highly entertaining — to do baby tasks together with your significant other (like bath time, the bedtime routine, the playground), and yet, that's entirely less efficient than having one of you bathe the baby while the other makes dinner? Sometimes I hate being an adult 'cause it makes me think of stuff like this. I'd rather just be impractical. It'd be a lot more fun.