Lauren Alaina opened up about her “crazy birth story,” her motherhood journey and more in a “deeply personal” conversation with iHeartRadio’s Bobby Bones.

Alaina welcomed her first baby, daughter Beni Doll Arnold, with husband Cam Arnold in June 2025, and she feels “like I’m learning every day how to take care of a child,” she said. Alaina caught up with the BobbyCast host on a new installment of Father Knows Less. Bobby became a father for the first time last month. He and wife Caitlin Estell welcomed daughter Billie Celine Estell (Bobby said Caitlin is “great now,” after becoming a mom).

Bobby shared that during the Father Knows Less conversation with Alaina, the former American Idol runner-up “walks through her birth story where the umbilical cord was wrapped around her daughter in multiple places, creating a dangerous situation during labor. From being induced to the intense, split-second decisions during delivery, and the overwhelming moment of hearing her daughter cry for the first time.”

Alaina said she’s “never heard a more beautiful sound,” than her newborn baby’s first cry, and “my life changed instantly in that second.”

Bobby ended the conversation by asking, “what’s the best thing about being a mom?”

“Oh man, there’s so many wonderful things,” Alaina said. “The way she loves me, just the most pure, innocent love. The way she looks at me and needs me…there’s nothing like it to know that…I am the No. 1 person in her life. And she says ‘Mama,’ and that was her first word, and that was pretty good.”

Find the full conversation on iHeartRadio here.

Alaina is part of the star-studded lineup of the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival, along with Carly Pearce, Luke Bryan, Kane Brown, Parker McCollum, Riley Green, Shaboozey, Dylan Scott, Russell Dickerson, Gretchen Wilson and Chase Matthew, plus special guest George Birge. iHeartRadio's Bobby Bones is returning as the event’s host. The show will take place on May 2 at Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Tickets to the show are available as of January 23. Fans across the country will be able to catch all the action as the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival will be broadcast live across iHeartCountry stations nationwide and the free iHeartRadio app on Saturday, May 2nd at 8pm ET/5pm PT (7pm CT).

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