Life After Three Babies: Ivanka Trump on How Motherhood Has Changed Her Priorities

Ivanka Trump welcomed her third child, Theodore James Kushner, on Sunday

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Published on March 28, 2016 12:10 PM

As Donald Trump inches his way toward a potential bid for the White House, his daughter Ivanka Trump is focused on a different pursuit: motherhood.

Ivanka, who gave birth to her third child, Theodore James Kushner, on Sunday, has raised her brood with husband Jared Kushner while operating a lifestyle brand and serving as executive vice president of the Trump Organization.

So how does the 34-year-old manage it all? “I have to compartmentalize everything now,” she previously told PEOPLE in 2014. “I try and think of ways to connect things.”

In addition to newborn Theodore, Ivanka has Joseph Frederick, 2, and Arabella Rose, 4. “Now I am familiar with timing and balance as well as bathing, diapers and how to hold a baby without fear of an accident. I feel like I am now a pro,” she said of her changing responsibilities.

But motherhood agrees with Ivanka – and it’s getting more difficult for her to prioritize business. “It gets harder and harder to even think of leaving them,” she said at the time.

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That’s likely because, as she has said, “the most fun part of being a mother” is watching her kids grow and change. “Taking a break and enjoying those everyday moments is extremely rewarding,” Ivanka told PEOPLE after welcoming Arabella in 2011.

“I’ve learned to become incredibly efficient,” Ivanka told Working Mother in 2013 of the changes to her life and career. “I don’t stress about being balanced because the truth is parenting is unpredictable and you can’t account for everything. Instead, I’m cognizant of my priorities and I wake up knowing what I need to accomplish personally and professionally and then I do everything I can to fulfill those goals.”

She added, “When I’m at home I’m there one hundred percent, and when I’m at the office I’m there one hundred perfect. You can’t be at two places at once, so you make a choice and commit to it. At the end of the day I’m more productive and efficient knowing I want to get home to my child and be engaged during our time together.”

Part of that home life is dictated by religion, Ivanka, who converted to Judaism, told Vogue last year.

“We’re pretty observant, more than some, less than others. I just feel like it s such an intimate thing for us,” she explained to the magazine. “It’s been such a great life decision for me. I am very modern, but I’m also a very traditional person, and I think that’s an interesting juxtaposition in how I was raised as well. I really find that with Judaism, it creates an amazing blueprint for family connectivity.”

That includes observing the sabbath, which means only family time from Friday to Saturday – and no technology.

“It’s an amazing thing when you’re so connected,” Ivanka said, “to really sign off. And for Arabella to know that she has me, undivided, one day a week? We don’t do anything except play with each other, hang out with one another, go on walks together. Pure family.”

While Ivanka finds parenting to be a little “chaotic,” as she once told FitPregnancy, she said she makes sure to meet every challenge. “You have to become much more flexible and malleable in your thinking and in the ways you get things done.”

Mainly, holidays aside, Ivanka has learned to go a little easier on herself: “I worried too much the first time around about how I would handle everything,” Ivanka told PEOPLE. “Now I know how fast these early days go by, and I want to enjoy every second. I love it.”

And the early days are now with Theodore. As Ivanka wrote on Facebook, her “heart is full.”