Gabrielle Union was thrilled to announce her daughter Kaavia’s arrival three months ago. She went through a lot of hard stuff on her journey to motherhood, and now that Kaavia is here, Union says there are still days that are hard, just in a different way.

“Now I understand why sometimes you’ll see moms at the airport or in Target just in tears,” Union recently told People, explaining that Kaavia used to love her car seat, but now hates it, which makes going places tough.

Sometimes Kaavia’s just got to get in the car seat, though, because Union often brings her baby girl along to work. “If I don’t bring her, I will miss everything,” she says. “She changes every day.” (Which means one day soon she might love the car seat again. Fingers crossed.)

data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-version="4" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);">

Union had plenty of experience with kids before Kaavia was born via surrogate in November, having helped raise her stepsons with husband Dwayne Wade, but the newborn days have their own unique challenges, something Union is getting used to. It can be frustrating and exhausting and can leave you crying in Target, but it is also amazing and so worth it.

Union is trying to enjoy this life that she’s been dreaming of for so long, and she’s got no time for negativity or mom-shaming on Instagram. “Everybody has been on my journey of pain and anguish and trauma, and I owe it to myself to enjoy every second of my joy,” she tells People. “If you’ve been rocking with me, in my misery and my pain and my failures, I want you to enjoy my joys,” she continued.

For her, part of enjoying her joys is understanding that different parts of her life are going to take priority on different days, and that she doesn’t have to be doing it all 24/7. “You try to do what you can in the hours that you can,” she says. “I may not be hitting it out of the park at work, at home, with her or with my husband, but that’s okay.”

You might also like: