Katherine Heigl said recently she quit Grey’s Anatomy after determining that juggling her work schedule with being a new mom to daughter Nahleigh — whom she adopted in 2009 — was too much and something had to go.

“I would come home angry and frustrated that I’d missed everything with my kid that day,” said the 35-year-old actress in the September issue of Good Housekeeping. “I didn’t get to wake her up from her nap, or do bath time or bedtime. I’d have to sneak into her room and kiss her when she was sleeping, hoping not to wake her up.”

It was something that weighed heavily on the mind of the Grey’s Anatomy star.

“I felt like my priorities were messed up,” she said. “I was putting so much time and energy into just my work, but I was raised [to believe] that family comes first.”

Naleigh, now five, was adopted from South Korea, mirroring what Heigl‘s own parents did in adopting her big sister, Meg.

“My family had its own unique look,” she said. “And I wanted the one I began with my husband to have the same look, in a way.”

Katherine Heigl Would Often Come Home 'Angry & Frustrated' From … – http://t.co/1DZUcP8YE3 pic.twitter.com/IeDot4LesF

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Two years ago, Heigl and her husband, singer Josh Kelley, adopted another baby girl, Adalaide, from Louisiana.

“We brought her home, and right away Naleigh was like a little mommy,” the 27 Dresses actress said. “She’d say, ‘No, no. You’re not holding her right.’ Or, ‘She needs to eat again.’ I’d be like, ‘Would you back off? Just give me a minute!'”

Heigl says leaving Grey’s Anatomy and limiting her movie roles enabled her to find some peace of mind and spend precious moments with her daughters.

“Naleigh would go off to her ballet classes and other stuff, and I would sit with the baby at home,” she shared. “I would read, and she would lie on my chest, and we’d lie on the couch with, like, four dogs, and watch Friday Night Lights. I found it so peaceful.”

http://t.co/MaKsC0G4wY @TheRealRothman @ABC &The Real Reason Katherine Heigl Left 'Grey's Anatomy' pic.twitter.com/qZZS1X46sJ

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With the girls a bit older now, the actress has returned to work on the new NBC fall series, State of Affairs. Some say it will be the vehicle that may help the actress repair her reputation of being “difficult”.

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