David Henrie and Maria Cahill are celebrating the arrival of their fourth child after experiencing the devastating loss of their daughter nearly three years ago.
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Cahill announced the birth Thursday, Sept. 3, through her husband’s Instagram account, sharing photos and videos documenting the family’s journey from pregnancy to the hospital and, ultimately, meeting their new son.
“Hi guys! Maria here. David graciously let me take over his phone to write our ‘baby is finally here’ announcement post,” Cahill wrote.
One photo showed Cahill holding the newborn in her hospital bed as Henrie and their three children gathered around her. The couple are already parents to Pia, 7, James, 5, and Gemma, 3.
Their son, Peter Henrie, arrived Sept. 2 after being a week overdue.
“Peter Henrie was born September 2nd, taking his own sweet time, a week late, at a whopping 10lbs 4oz. God bless a woman’s pelvis. Truly,” Cahill wrote.
Peter’s birth carries particular significance for the family because he is their “rainbow baby,” a term commonly used for a child born after a pregnancy loss.
Cahill opened up about that loss in the announcement, revealing that the couple’s daughter, Isabel, died in November 2023.
“This topic is very meaningful to me because while we talk a lot about rainbow babies, rarely do we see the actual reality of both sides of that rainbow,” she wrote. “November of 2023, we buried Isabel. I lost her in my second trimester to a bacteria in severe food poisoning that was literally the most traumatic experience of my life: home alone, kids asleep in the rooms next door, David on a flight. Complete nightmare fuel for the next three years.”
She added that, “This birth has been nothing short of redemptive for our family.”
She went on to say how her children would pray “every single day quite directly and (slightly) morbidly ‘that Peter doesn’t die.’”
She also used the announcement to acknowledge women navigating infertility and pregnancy loss, noting that many experiences remain private.
“A lot of primary, secondary and unexplained types of infertility journeys are silent, unseen and lonely for the countless women who experience them,” she wrote.
Cahill encouraged women not to measure themselves by their fertility experiences or the number of children they have.
“Thinking of you women today — your stories, like mine, are not defined by these struggles or by the amount of kids we can or can’t have,” she wrote.
She ended by describing Sept. 2 as “a massive day of redemption for our family” and offering support to those still waiting for their own happy ending.
Henrie starred on Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place.