Everywhere, we see new mothers. At the store, newborns snugged into carriers, their tiny, soft faces wilted into their mothers’ chests. In strollers, snugged and bundled against the cold, tiny eyes peeking out from under hats. Everywhere and always, heart-wrenchingly adorable.

We comment or think to ourselves about their sweetness, their cuteness, and maybe sometimes offer a smile or platitude to his mother–a reflexive offer of solace to a woman we know is up to her eyes in exhaustion, bodily changes and dirty diapers.

Those early days are so delicious, so ridiculous, so hard, so sweet and so quick.

For me, I’m in the stage in life where it seems like every month, a friend or acquaintance is having a baby–and in turn, being re-born herself.

This is an aspect of motherhood that we, societally, often overlook. Lost among the countless “Baby Bounceback Body!” and “Buy These 1,000 Things for Your Newborn!” articles are the less glamorous, very gritty stories about new motherhood from, well, the mom‘s perspective.

(And who can blame us for getting caught up in all the baby stuff? They are kinda cute. 😉 )

But since I’ve had the opportunity to think about this on so many occasions over the past few years, I thought it would be awesome to hear all of your thoughts on this one question, too: What is the one thing you would tell a new mom?

What would you tell her to expect? What would you tell her about how it is to be a first-time mom? To tweak a well-known phrase, what would you say about “the good, the bad and the poopy?“

Here’s what I would say: Welcome to the best, most exhausting days of your life. Throw logic out the window. Trust your gut; it’s the most important tool you have in raising your child. And never doubt your heart, because it knows all the answers you’re looking to others to hear.

And then? Then I’d tell her to drop all expectations–of herself, and of her child, and just roll with it.

I would also tell her this:

Let motherhood change you. Let it wash over you like the tidal wave it is–stealing your breath, blurring your senses and forcing your surrender.

And then rise from it changed. Stronger. Humbled. More in awe.

The person you are meant to be, who is now awakened to the power of whatever that force in the world is that reminds us of the Greater.