​When I was pregnant with our first son, my mom kept telling me that it was going to be a total and complete life change.  I would just nod and smile thinking to myself, "Yes, mom...I realize that.  I am having a baby."  Then, I had him.

She wasn't kidding.  Total and complete life change was a complete understatement.  Bringing a new baby into your life, especially as a first time mom cannot even be described.  It's an unbelievable, overwhelming experience.  In a split second you can go from utter and complete joy to tears of exhaustion.  The thing is regardless of how tired or hard motherhood seems, every single second is worth it.  

That leads me to what do I wish I had known?  I wish I had known that even though there would be very, very hard days, the good days would outweigh the hard days.  I wish I realized that all those sleepless nights, spent rocking and nursing my baby, I would someday miss and long for.  I wish I had known that I would literally blink my eyes and the next thing I would be doing is walking my son into his first day of Kindergarten.  I wish I had really cherished and enjoyed those newborn days and months instead of just trying to survive, those nights where my son had severe reflux and it was end on end of crying.  I was in survival mode, only I didn't realize how fleeting those days would be.  

Thankfully, when I had my daughter, I remembered.  I cherished every single sleepless night, every single newborn scent and smell, and all the nursing because I knew as soon as I blinked, she would be heading to school too.

At the end of the day, so many things can be told before you become a new mom, but at the end of the day, you do not realize the full experience until you really do hold that baby in your arms for the first time and you are suddenly overcome with love for this little baby that you just met.  It's a love that cannot be described and for me it will never be broken.  

I will truly love my children day in and day out through the thick and the thin.  They will forever be my heartbeats.