A happy surprise! Shortly before giving birth to her son, August, Mandy Moore received a positive update about her beloved dog, Jackson.
“In the flutter of all things Gus, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this guy got a clean bill of health,” the This Is Us star, 36, wrote via her Instagram Story on Wednesday, March 3, alongside a sweet snap of her pet. “His tumor was benign. Cancer-free.”
The actress felt a huge release after getting the good news. “We found out about 3 hours before I went into labor and I know my relief was what set things in motion,” she added. “So much gratitude these days. We love you so much, Jackson!!!”
Moore revealed that her puppy would need emergency surgery shortly before announcing the arrival of her first child with husband Taylor Goldsmith on February 23.
“Gus is here,” the Emmy nominee gushed as she shared the first photo of her baby boy on Instagram. “Our sweet boy, August Harrison Goldsmith. He was punctual and arrived right on his due date, much to the delight of his parents. We were prepared to fall in love in all sorts of brand new ways, but it goes beyond anything we could have ever imagined.”
One day later, she described the meaning behind the unique moniker. “It was last August when @taylordawesgoldsmith and I found out we were having a boy (it’s also Taylor’s birth month) and we always loved the name … so it was settled very early on in our book,” she explained in a social media upload, showing off the special blanket the Dawes singer, 35, gave her before their son arrived.
“Then for our anniversary in November, T gifted me with this blanket with the ‘A’ (for Amanda) made from extra material from my wedding dress and ‘T’ (for Taylor) from his wedding shirt,” Moore continued. “Felt like a very fitting amalgamation of our whole story.”
The Tangled star’s road to motherhood wasn’t easy. During an interview on the “Informed Pregnancy Podcast” in February, Moore opened up about making big changes to her birth plan.
“My platelets have been dropping throughout pregnancy,” she said. “It’s something I never thought about until I got, I’d say early to midway through my third trimester. They sort of started dropping pretty precipitously and fell below the threshold that would make it possible for me to do a home birth. Unfortunately, my plans have had to change.”
At the time, the New Hampshire native admitted she had a “delayed reaction” about having to switch up her plan, which meant that she could no longer give birth at home.
“The grieving process about my plan not unfolding the way that I had hoped actually … it was a couple of weeks afterward that it really sort of sunk in,” she said. “Just caring about other people that were planning to do home births and feeling this weird tinge of jealousy. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I’m like, ‘Oh man, I’m happy for them, but I’m also kind of sad that I don’t get to have that experience that I was hoping for.’”
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