Lauren Alaina is a mom! The singer and her husband, Cam Arnold, welcomed their first child, daughter Beni Doll Arnold, into the world on June 11. Alaina shares photos of her baby girl on social media, revealing she weighed seven pounds, 13 ounces, and was 19 inches long when she arrived.
“The right words are hard to find to describe how parts of my heart that I didn’t even knew existed were unlocked at 8:44 AM when they laid you on my belly for the first time,” Alaina writes. “I will never be the same. You, to your dad and me, are absolute perfection. We are honored God chose us to be your parents. Thank you to everyone for all of the love, prayers and support for our precious daughter.”
Alaina also reveals she has a new song, written for Beni, which is out now.
“I have a little surprise for everyone,” Alaina shares. “To celebrate the most precious miracle on Earth I have decided to release a song I wrote about my daughter. We learned she was coming in a time of deep sadness after the loss of my daddy. I wasn’t sure when I would share ‘Heaven Sent’ but watching my own husband become a father the last couple of days has made me want to share it with you now. She came just before Father’s Day. My first without my own father. A day that will forever be hard to me, but I now have a new and perfect reason to celebrate it. Beni’s daddy. My sweet and steady husband. Beni truly is a gift from God that my old man sitting up there in ‘Heaven Sent.’ It’s out now everywhere.”
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In January, Alaina announced her pregnancy, using the video for her “Those Kind of Women” single.
“It’s all about the women who raised me… I was really fortunate to be raised around a bunch of very strong women,” Alaina said at the time. “And when we cut this song, when we recorded this song, I was not pregnant nor thinking about becoming pregnant.
“It’s funny how things fell into place,” she added. “It literally changed the song for me. I already loved it, because it’s about the women who raised me. But, now I am going to be a woman raising a child.”
Alaina and Arnold were married in early 2024. But she fell even more in love with Arnold when she found out they were going to be parents.
“My love for him grew that day of getting married, and then finding out we were having a baby together,” Alaina said. “Walking through this experience with him has been unbelievable. I’m looking forward to watching my husband be a dad. He is so obsessed with our animals; he’s a big nurturer in general. In fact, when I was getting ready to marry him, that was something that I knew would be one of the best things about being his wife, was being able to parent with him.”
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Alaina and Arnold did not plan on starting a family so soon after tying the knot. But the American Idol alum unexpectedly lost her father, J.J. Suddeth, last July, believing he had something to do with the baby’s unexpected arrival.
“I do think that my dad passed away and got a stair up in heaven, and was like, ‘Hey, we got to work something out down there to send the family something good,’” she says. “And it has been such an unexpected blessing. We obviously still talk about and are dealing with the grief of my dad, but this baby has healed a lot of that for us … like it’s a little piece of my dad that will live on.”
“[I didn’t know] I can love something that I haven’t even really held yet,” Alaina tells People. “I feel the baby inside me, and it’s kicking me and doing all of the things. It’s like I was the Grinch or something, and my heart grew,”
Alaina gave birth more than a week after her due date, sharing humorous content on social media of her very pregnant. Although she was uncomfortable at the end, the 30-year-old loved every part of being pregnant.
“I honestly believe that being pregnant is the most confident and empowered I’ve ever felt, because of what my body is doing,” Alaina told People. “I struggled with an eating disorder for a really long time. I’ve spoken out about that quite a bit. And the way that I appreciate and love my body now, knowing what it can do, has changed everything for me.”
Fortunately, the Grand Ole Opry member has a healthy approach about getting back in shape after her pregnancy.
“I know it’s going to be a journey to get my quote ‘body back,’ but I’m not even worried about that because I’ve got a beautiful little girl coming,” Alaina said. “I’m going to teach her that she’s perfect and beautiful in every way, and I think she’s going to teach me that about myself too.”
Alaina’s next concert is scheduled for August 29. Find all of her music and upcoming shows at LaurenAlaina.com.
Photo Credit: Laura Moll