Pregnancy with a toddler is Olympic-tier and no one will convince me otherwise

I’m almost 34 weeks pregnant with baby #2 and I just need to say pregnancy with a toddler should qualify you for an actual medal.

I’ve been absolutely miserable lately with constant Braxton Hicks, borderline high BP, a couple hospital visits because the contractions felt a little too real for comfort, and I’ve been sitting at 1.5 cm dilated since 32 weeks. My first baby was born at 35 weeks, so every weird symptom sends my brain into “is this happening again?” mode.

As these weeks go on, I’m realizing something very honestly. I genuinely do not understand how moms do this with a toddler in tow, especially with limited or no support.

I want to say this clearly because tone can get lost online ... I am not posting this to brag. I’m posting from a place of awe. I have enormous respect for moms doing this alone or with partners who can’t or don’t help much. You deserve a level of credit that society does not give you.

Because even with support… I’m barely hanging on. My husband and I are both self-employed/WFH, which has allowed us to split parenting pretty equally, but lately he has honestly been doing 95% of the childcare and housework because I’ve been so physically wiped out.

Our 1.5-year-old hasn’t quite mastered walking yet (she was premature), so she still needs to be carried a lot. Picking up her 30 lb body feels like Olympic powerlifting… and this is coming from someone who was deadlifting 150 lbs not that long ago.

Now I can barely walk past a diaper without wanting to gag. I’ve probably changed one diaper for every ten he has.

He makes homemade meals every night (tonight was nachos that tasted like heaven), does birth stretches with me, helps with hip opening/perineal stretches, makes sure I’m drinking enough water, and is constantly telling me to sit down and rest when I try to push myself too hard.

Emotionally too ... I’m attempting a VBAC and when I spiral about birth fear, he grounds me in exactly the way I need. Not because support erases pain, but because his calm energy genuinely helps me believe I can do this.

The one thing he cannot fix is the fact that we starry eyed signed a lease on a beautiful 3BR second floor walk up apartment and convinced ourselves the stairs would be “no big deal.”

They are, in fact, a very big deal. Fuck these cursed stairs.

All of this has just left me thinking how do single moms do this? How do moms with absent partners do this? How do moms whose partners work long hours outside the home do this?

I have so much respect for you. Truly. 🫶🩵✨️

Pregnancy is hard. Pregnancy with a toddler is unreal. Anyone doing it with limited support deserves the world.