Nicole Clapp, 34, is finally getting some sleep. But it took 16 months for her twin daughters, Kennedy and Jordan, now 2, to sleep for more than two and a half hours at a stretch. And it took this single mom three episodes of jarring herself awake at the wheel—just in time to keep from rear-ending the car ahead of her—to have an epiphany about what she could and couldn't do on her own. "I was too tired to drive," she says. "I had to change my benefits at my job so they would pay for my bus fare instead of parking." Fortunately, says Nicole, her boss, Laura Salganik, a woman with grown children of her own, supported the change in benefits.In fact, Laura was supportive throughout Nicole's extreme exhaustion, even in the early days of her job as an executive specialist, when Nicole was so tired that she would periodically nod off at work. "When I first interviewed Nicole, I didn't give a second thought to the fact that she had twin babies," Laura says. "She was the strongest candidate, and I hired her." Landing the job was a ray of light for Nicole after a difficult period. She'd been on bed rest for the last few months of her pregnancy. Then a two-month bout of postpartum depression left her feeling bereft. "The girls were in the NICU for a month, and I kept crying," Nicole remembers. "I couldn't stop the tears." She would sit in her daughters' nursery pumping breast milk and ask herself, Why do people do this? Why do they have kids? She says, "I was mentally exhausted and despairing." Focusing on her babies' care helped lift the sadness, but Nicole says she didn't truly enjoy her kids until they started sleeping through the night. On Her OwnIt was during this challenging time that Nicole also came to the painful realization that her relationship with the twins' father, with whom she'd lived for three years, was no longer working. "The girls were the catalyst," she says. "They're the reason I knew it wasn't going to work out." The original plan had been for Nicole to stay home with the girls for two years. But after she decided she'd be better off living on her own with her daughters and without their dad, Nicole went looking for a new apartment and a job—and she never looked back. Now, after Nicole drops her girls off at day care in the morning, she parks her car at the mall bus stop and rides the commuter bus—catching an extra hour of sleep along the way—from her home in Waldorf, MD, to her job at American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit in Washington, DC, that does statistical research. Nicole assists Laura, the director of the federal statistics program, scheduling her appointments, scanning her emails, filling out forms, attaching receipts and getting her expense account paid. Nicole says she's the kind of person who does what needs doing right away; when she can't, she puts a sticky note, or two or three or ten, on her desk. "I am organized probably to a fault," she says. "Not everybody functions like I do." It may be this ability that helps Nicole radiate a calm, cool and collected composure. She appears unflappable. She says she honed her organizational skills working as a project manager in the advertising industry for six years, a career path that got put on hold when the firm she worked for closed down.Nicole attributes her work ethic to her parents. Her dad, Gilbert Clapp, is an Air Force retiree whose work took the family of three to New Mexico, Germany and Hampton, VA, where Nicole attended high school and college. Her mom, Carolyn Clapp, works as a training analyst for the Army, writing programs and course material for cadets. "They just got up every day and went to work and did what they had to do," she says. "I don't think I've ever seen either of my parents miss a day of work." Bed RestGilbert and Carolyn (now divorced) live three hours away, so relying on them if she's running late is not an option. But when Nicole was on bed rest near the end of her pregnancy, her father came to take care of her for six weeks, which she says was a bonding experience. And when her caregiver had to leave abruptly over family issues when Nicole had been in her current job for only three months, Nicole called him in a panic. His response: "I'll be there." The caregiver gave her notice on a Sunday and was gone in less than 24 hours. Gilbert arrived the next day and stayed from June through October. "Because of him, I didn't miss a day of work," she says. Being organized and on the ball is key not only to her working life but also to her home life. Her friend Imani Greene says, "Nicole is the neatest and most organized person I have ever met." Imani teases Nicole about the dozens of highly specialized baskets she keeps at home. There's the toy basket, the book basket, the diaper/wipes basket and a whole slew of non-kid-related baskets as well, helping Nicole manage the details of life with two toddlers on her own. To refuel after a long workday, Nicole catches her second hour-long nap of the day on the commuter bus before getting her car, picking up the girls from day care and running an errand or two, time permitting. Then it's a simple dinner for the girls, followed by bath, book and bedtime. Time to RefuelImani says that for Nicole, taking care of her girls is her life's priority. But she doesn't forget to take care of herself as well, with the occasional massage, movie or dinner out with a girlfriend or a date. "By allowing herself these moments, however infrequent, Nicole makes sure her spirit is filled and she has enough fuel to propel herself and her babies through life," says Imani.Someday, Nicole says, she would like to go back to school for an MBA in event management or hospitality, as two of her passions are food and travel. Despite the fact that Nicole's current weekday culinary reality is often hunching over the counter eating leftover hot dogs and canned veggies off her daughters' plates, one of her dreams is to expose Jordan and Kennedy to different cultures and cuisines. She's started by taking her girls to a variety of local restaurants on Friday nights, including Thai, Italian, Chinese and Mexican, all of which they enjoy. "I love to go out to dinner and didn't want to deprive myself of this joy even though I have little babies," she says. "Long, long term, I might like to open a B&B in the Caribbean."

For now, though, she says, her best adventure has been choosing to become a single mother to her daughters when they were 6 months old. Jordan and Kennedy, according to Imani, are thriving—happy, impeccably cared for, well-adjusted girls. "They have an amazing role model who, frankly, will be a hard act to follow," Imani says.Nicole feels confident she made the right decision to strike out on her own. "Jordan and Kennedy have just started to hold my face and rub my hair," she says, a sly smile spreading across her face. "They stare at me like they're taking it all in. I love that."