Brantley Gilbert‘s “Kind of Crazy”? New fatherhood!
The 32-year-old country rocker and his wife Amber welcomed their first child, son Barrett Hardy-Clay Gilbert, on Saturday, Nov. 11, his rep confirms to PEOPLE exclusively.
Born at 1:37 p.m. after a fairly quick labor at Piedmont Hospital in Athens, Georgia, baby Barrett weighed in at 6 lbs., 7 oz. and measures 20 inches in length.
“Honestly, I’m just speechless,” Gilbert tells PEOPLE of the birth of his first child. “Watching the delivery, I don’t even know what to say. Amber and I are just so thankful and blessed to have this beautiful little boy.”
Due the 17th, Barrett arrived a bit sooner than originally anticipated. “It was really fast. Amber woke up, had a little pain,” the singer-songwriter explains. “And the nurse said, ‘You’re ready.’ It was 30 minutes, and we had Barrett. And I have no words, beyond it’s even more than I could’ve ever imagined.”
Barrett Hardy-Clay GilbertLyn Sengupta
When it came to naming their son, the Gilberts looked to a longtime favorite, as well as their family lineage.
“Barrett’s a name we’d had for a very, very long time,” Gilbert tells PEOPLE. “We knew we wanted to have a ‘B’ name, and [Barrett’s] something we’ve always had and loved.”
The baby’s hyphenated middle name honors both sides of Brantley and Amber’s family — Hardy comes from Amber’s father’s side, while Clay was the country star’s PaPaw’s middle name.
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Gilbert and his wife revealed they were expecting their first child exclusively to PEOPLE in May, explaining that it was “an answer to a prayer” after trying to conceive for almost two years following their June 2015 wedding.
“We’d been to see a fertility specialist, and two different folks that told me it would be close to a miracle if it happened without IVF,” Gilbert said at the time. “I’m not much of a quitter, but I was really, really frustrated.”
Brantley Gilbert and Wife AmberLyn Sengupta
But in February, Amber “handed me a box and there were three pregnancy tests in there and all of them were positive,” he recalled.
“I think I stared at it for at least two minutes without saying anything because I was literally in shock. We’d been told it was just not in the cards, and I’m staring at this answer to many, many, many prayers.”
Brantley GilbertLyn Sengupta
In early June, the then-parents-to-be celebrated their little one with a gender reveal party, where the “Bottoms Up” singer used a rifle to shoot at a target filled with blue dust.
“Everybody was crying. I turned around and I think that’s when it hit me that everybody’s wanted this for us as much as we did for so long,” Gilbert told PEOPLE. “When the blue cloud went up, well, that made it even more real. Now we know it’s a little boy, and he’s gonna have to get ready for a whole lot of love.”
“We got to go to the doctor’s and pick up the envelope with the [sex] in it,” Gilbert added. “Then we took it to the guy who was packing the powder. We dropped it off, then waited until the big moment … and man, when we saw that blue cloud of smoke rising?! There are no words.”
Brantley Gilbert and Wife AmberLyn Sengupta
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“Amber and I thought it was a little boy. I don’t know how or why, but we just did,” he continued. “I’d have been happy with any baby, boy or girl. But there’s something about the idea of a little guy … ”
The new dad is extremely grateful for the couple’s new addition, telling PEOPLE in June how much the support of their loved ones has meant to them along their journey.
“It feels like Amber and I have been trying to have a baby, and now that it’s happening, the world is as happy as we were,” Gilbert explained. “People saw what we were going through, and so many people have these problems, so we’re all in it together.”
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http://people.com/babies/brantley-gilbert-wife-amber-welcome-son-barrett-hardy-clay/
