Motherhood is making Mandy Moore happier than ever.
The singer/actress was positively beaming in a candid new black and white shot with her baby son Gus, which she shared to Instagram Monday.
‘Inside jokes with this little guy for over 3 weeks,’ the This Is Us star, 36, wrote in the caption.
Bliss: Mandy Moore glowed while hanging out with her newborn son Gus in a beautiful black and white shot shared to Instagram on Monday
Mandy oozed pure joy as she gazed down at her little guy, who was also giggling.
It was clear welcoming her son – full name August Harrison Goldsmith – had changed everything for Moore.
The star described the surreal experience she had while giving birth during a recent appearance on the Informed Pregnancy Podcast, saying that giving birth to her child was like taking acid and being on ‘a trip’.
‘It’s like you’re on this trip. You’re on this like acid trip or something,’ she explained.
‘Like, I was in my own head, doing my own thing. I could hear people—I could hear suggestions and sometimes agree with them.
‘Ultimately, it was such an insular experience, which sounds silly that I guess I didn’t really imagine it.
Trippy: The star described the surreal experience she had while giving birth during a recent appearance on the Informed Pregnancy Podcast, saying that giving birth to her child was like taking acid and being on ‘a trip’
‘I felt like it was going to be somewhat more participatory with other people, that I would see their faces and be awake and alert and like, listen to their suggestions.’
Mandy recalled how she had her eyes closed during the process and added: ‘I was on my own. It was my own narrative, my own story.’
The Candy singer felt ‘super prepared’ for labor because she’d taken classes on breathing techniques.
However, she admitted: ‘All of that just went out the window. For me, it was just all about instinct,’ the singer explained.
And when she held her son in her arms for the first time, Mandy had never ‘felt higher’.
She said: ‘You are completely smothered in just that feeling of, I have never felt higher, I have never felt this kind of love.
New parents: The This Is Us star shares her son with musician husband Taylor Goldsmith, 35, whom she married in 2018
‘It was like the world stopped again and you’re not aware of anything else going on. [August is] the greatest gift in the world.’
Mandy had originally planned for an unmedicated home birth, but later changed to a hospital birth with a midwife present and on the way into the medical facility, she changed her mind about pain relief.
She recalled telling her spouse: ‘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.’
However, her platelet levels ended up being too low to have the epidural.
She added: ‘Labour was intense, it was gruelling, it was harrowing.’
Mandy broke the news of her pregnancy in September with an Instagram snap of herself and her husband caressing her bump.
‘Baby Boy Goldsmith coming early 2021,’ the This Is Us actress revealed to her more than four million Instagram followers.
‘Gus is here’: Mandy, who had been documenting her pregnancy journey on Instagram, introduced August Harrison to the world on February 23, a few days after his birth
She recently revealed on Instagram how she and her husband decided to name the baby August.
She said: ‘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.’
The caption was accompanied by a picture of a little grey baby blanket with the words ‘AUGUST’ stitched onto it.
Mandy added: ‘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.
‘Felt like a very fitting amalgamation of our whole story. I can’t wait to pass this on to our sweet August one day.’
Cute: Moore has explained why she and Taylor chose the name August for their son and showed off a blanket made from pieces of her wedding dress that her husband had made