a mother's heart

i love advice.
i love receiving it,
and i especially love giving it.
i try to keep it on a solicited basis though.
oh, i do try!
tonight my advice was solicited.
i was chatting with the children's librarian who i have befriended.
she is about my age and pregnant with her first baby.
she asked if i had any mothering advice.
as a matter of fact i did.
it was advice that i wish someone would have given me the 1st time around.
i told her to always listen to her mother heart first
and do exactly what it says
even if it feels uneasy trusting in a feeling that's so new.
(or if conflicts with the majority.)
i told her she will always know best.
i gave her the example about how i always wanted to hold my babies.
i got too much advice about how that's not a good thing for fear of spoiling them, etc.,
so i worried it about it all the time with my 1st.
there were many times i didn't pick him up when i wanted to.
i didn't go to his bedside at night when he was crying because i was advised that crying it out was better.
i hated the conflict of what was in my mother heart versus the advice i got from other moms.
the 2nd time around i was a little better,
but by maggie's turn i had enough experience to know that what felt best was what was right for me.
i don't think that poor baby ever got put down!
i didn't advise my librarian friend to hold her baby all the time.
but i i did advise her to if it felt right.
i try to live like this all the time as i mother,
but i'm learning the heart can be a tricky thing
because what feels right isn't always easy.
my very closest friend has a hard task for her mother heart to bear,
but she is listening and doing because she also knows that a mother's heart is always right.
i know her heart is right,
and i hope mine is too through all of its mother growing pains.
indeed it's true...
mother always does know best.