Doing her best. Ireland Baldwin opened up about her pregnancy journey — and got candid about the physical and mental health struggles she’s faced along the way.
“Pregnancy is hard. It takes so much out of you. I wasn’t ready for that. I’ve always wanted a baby with the right person. I grew up with a very jaded view of what love really looked like and I always wanted to have a child of my own with someone who would treat us right and love us unconditionally,” Ireland, 27 — whose parents are Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger — wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, January 18. “I underestimated just how hard pregnancy would be on my mind and my body. Being someone who deals with extreme health anxiety on a daily basis, pregnancy turned things into high gear. I’ve struggled to adapt to these changes.”
The New York Film Academy alum, who revealed in December 2022 that she and boyfriend RAC were expecting their first child, explained that she wasn’t sharing her difficulties “for sympathy” but because she’s “personally found a lot of comfort in unfamiliar corners of social media during this time in my life.”
Baldwin added that finding kindred spirits through the internet is especially important after watching loved ones “fade away or not know how to relate to you anymore,” calling herself just a “drinking buddy” and a “good time” for some of her former friends.
“This s—t is hard. When people expect you to be glowing and angelic and in a constant state of bliss … it’s unrealistic sometimes,” she wrote.
The California native noted that “everyone has a different experience” when it comes to pregnancy, but her own journey has felt like “mental warfare.”
“I feel like my brain and thoughts are going to war every single day,” she explained. “I’m exhausted. I’m unmotivated.”
When it comes to the physical aspect, Baldwin revealed she’s been vomiting multiple times a day, giving her a glow some people mistake for her “skincare routine.”
“It’s unrealistic sometimes. I’m a goblin. A bridge troll. A curmudgeon,” she quipped.
The Grudge Match star also shared her frustrations over her career and how it’s been difficult to stay productive now that she’s pregnant. She and her beau, 38, who started dating in 2021, have several joint ventures, including their Good Times company.
“I am a business owner,” Baldwin told TikTok viewers in August 2022. “[My boyfriend and I] are opening up a café, wine bar and a boutique. And we are starting a brand together. Another big part of my life is I am a foster rescue dog mom, I work in adoption and I work with a lot of fosters and a lot of rescues. I am in the works and in the process of starting my own rescue and have been for a while. The biggest piece of the puzzle is that I am a screenwriter and before you go ‘What have you done?’, I’ve done nothing.”
The model announced her pregnancy just three months after stepmother, Hilaria Baldwin, gave birth to her and the 30 Rock alum’s seventh child. The Departed star married Hilaria, 38, 10 years after finalizing his divorce from Basinger, 69. Hilaria and Alec have since become proud parents to Carmen, 9, Rafael, 7, Leonardo, 6, Romeo, 4, Eduardo, 2, Lucia, 22 months, and Ilaria, 3 months.
On Wednesday, Ireland opened up about struggling with being far away from her family.
“It’s hard moving somewhere with no family,” she shared. “It’s hard not being really close to family to begin with because they live far or are idiots that I want nothing to do with. It’s harder seeing other people go through this and have their parents close by.”
The Los Angeles resident concluded her post by sharing that despite her struggles, pregnancy is “still worth it” and reminded her followers that if they are finding their own pregnancy journey challenging, they aren’t alone.
“This s—t is HARD. And you’re not alone if you feel the same,” she captioned the Instagram post. “And it’s ok to be REAL and post highlight reels. It’s ok to be happy and sad at the same time. I am grateful but I am struggling and that’s perfectly ok.”
