Lauren Alaina is going to be a mom! The Amercian Idol alum reveals she and her husband Cam Arnold, whom she wed last February, are expecting their first child together.
“[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 was already in love with Arnold, whom she began dating 2020, but fell even deeper in love after finding out he was going to be a father.
“My love for him grew that day of getting married, and then finding out we were having a baby together,” Alaina says. “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.”
The pregnancy is a bright spot for Alaina, who unexpectedly lost her father, J.J. Suddeth, in July. Since Alaina and Arnold weren’t planning on trying to become parents until the end of 2025, the Georgia native says her father likely had something to do with their unexpected change of plans.
“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.”
So far, Alaina hasn’t had much morning sickness, and says her biggest pregnancy symptom is extreme tiredness. But she did give in to one big craving, in celebration of her 30th birthday.
“On my actual birthday, my husband asked me what I wanted to do, and I told him I just wanted to stay home with him and to have dinner,” Alaina recalls. “The only thing I have craved this whole pregnancy, he made me for dinner. We had a fire out back, and we had chili cheese dogs. I fought the urge for a while. And finally, when I ate a bite of this chili cheese dog, when I tell you I had an emotional response, I almost cried. I literally almost cried over the hot dog.”
Alaina reveals her pregnancy in the video for “Those Kind of Women,” out now. The song has even more meaning for her, now that she is about to have her own child.
“It’s all about the women who raised me… I was really fortunate to be raised around a bunch of very strong women,” Alaina says. “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 adds. “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 is joining Rascal Flatts on part of their Life Is A Highway Tour. Her final date scheduled is on February 28. Find “Those Kind of Women” and all of Alaina’s music and upcoming shows, at LaurenAlainaOfficial.com.
Photo Credit: Robby Klein