Mandy Moore and Hilary Duff's newborn babies meet: 'A love story for the ages'
Mandy Moore and Hilary Duff's little ones are cooking up quite the newborn friendship.
On Saturday, This Is Us star Moore, 37, posted a snapshot to her Instagram Stories of 2-month-old son August (nickname: Gus) peacefully lounging on a blanket staring out into the distance. On the other side of the blanket, Younger star Hilary Duff's 1-month-old daughter Mae didn't feel quite as serene, as she was visibly wailing.
"When August met Mae: a love story for the ages," Moore captioned the adorable photo of the two infants.
Mae joins Duff's two older children: 9-year-old son Luca with ex-husband Mike Comrie, and 2-year-old daughter Banks with husband Matthew Koma. Moore welcomed Gus, her first child, with husband Taylor Goldsmith back in February.
Moore's journey to parenthood has proved to be an interesting one. In an appearance on the Informed Pregnancy Podcast with Dr. Elliot Berlin last month, Moore detailed her experience of becoming a mother, saying, "We were prepared to fall in love in all sorts of brand new ways, but it goes beyond anything we could have ever imagined."
But naturally, that doesn't mean her birthing process was entirely smooth. After experiencing a night filled with wave-like contractions, Moore tried to utilize the breathing techniques she learned throughout her pregnancy. But when she went into labor, "all of that just went out the window."
After an "awful" ride to the hospital "writhing around in pain" in the back of Goldsmith's car, Moore had to abandon her original plan for an unmedicated home birth. "While I was in the car on the way to the hospital, I was like, 'Taylor, I'm getting an epidural. I don't want you to be mad at me, but that's what's happening when we get to the hospital.' We live pretty far away, it was almost a 40-minute ride to the hospital at 3 in the morning."
However, Moore could not receive an epidural because her blood platelet count was too low, which could cause a complication called "spinal epidural hematoma" (when blood puts pressure on the spine), Yahoo Life previously reported.
"I remember moaning like an animal," Moore said. "It was grueling, it was harrowing."
While she pushed for for three hours, the baby's heart rate began to drop. As a result, the doctor applied a vacuum extraction to his head to guide him out. After one final push, baby August was born. While the birthing process felt like an "acid trip or something," Moore says she's filled with love and gratitude for all that she's learned.
"I've never felt this kind of love. It was like the world stopped again, and you're not aware of anything else that's going on," she said. "That's why the tearing, all of it, it doesn't exist. It doesn't matter. You just have your baby on you. And I couldn't imagine anything else mattering."
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