Baby makes three for Mandy Moore and her husband, Taylor Goldsmith!
The This Is Us star, 36, welcomed her first child, a son named August Harrison, into the world February 23rd. The actress and singer posted a sweet photo of her new bundle of joy on her Instagram account, saying that she and Taylor “were prepared to fall in love in all sorts of brand new ways, but it goes beyond anything we could have ever imagined.”
Moore announced her pregnancy back in September 2020. She was candid and open about the plans she had formed in her head about the way she envisioned the birth.
Mandy’s home birth hopes dashed
After some fertility struggles and a difficult first trimester the actress recently was forced to alter her home birth plans when her platelet count started to drop during her second trimester and continued to drop into her third trimester.
She discussed her high hopes for a home birth and her subsequent disappointment upon finding out her vision wouldn’t be realized in a recent episode on the Informed Pregnancy Podcast.
“We were very intentional and excited about this prospect of being at home for the birth. I was like, ‘Taylor, I want you to do a playlist, but also I want you to have the guitar on too, ready to play,” Moore revealed during the interview. “We were really excited about what the whole experience was going to be.”
‘I’m going to do whatever it takes’
She went on to discuss what went through her head after being told a home birth could put her and her baby at risk. “Unfortunately my plans have had to change. I initially was like, ‘I got it, absolutely. I am malleable, I’m going to do whatever it takes for this baby,’ and that is absolutely how I still feel. But the grieving process about my plan not unfolding the way that I had hoped actually, I felt this sort of delayed reaction.”
While low platelet counts are not uncommon or unusual in pregnancy, a continuous drop can lead to a condition known as gestational thrombocytopenia, which can cause increased bleeding, bruising, and abnormal blood clotting later in a pregnancy and during birth.
Aside from dealing with first trimester sickness and a scary third trimester, Moore also suffered the loss of her beloved dog, Joni, in December. She posted the sad news on her Instagram account and shared her grief with her fans, saying that she “knew something was amiss when she, lifelong food-obsessed, didn’t finish her dinner and couldn’t get comfortable in bed (despite being on pain meds). My mama intuition told me to bring her in and I’m glad we did.”
Joni was 13 at the time and had undergone surgery prior to her sudden passing.