Eric Paslay‘s “Friday Night” plans involve diapers for the foreseeable future.
The Grammy-nominated country artist and his wife Natalie are first-time parents to a baby girl they welcomed on Saturday, Dec. 8, in Nashville, Tennessee, his rep confirms to PEOPLE exclusively.
Piper Lily Paslay was born at 9:37 a.m., measuring 19 inches long and weighing in at 7 lbs., 2 oz.
“It took three days for us to name her! We needed to get to know our baby girl before we could choose,” the couple tell PEOPLE exclusively.
“After getting many smiles and much laughter from all her cute little sounds and squeaks, Piper suddenly fell into place and seemed right for her. Her middle name came a little easier. Lily is a derivative of Elizabeth, who was Mary’s cousin and the mother of John the Baptist. It also happens to be Natalie’s favorite flower!”
“We are completely in love with our little girl and looking forward to the happiest Christmas of our lives with this beautiful gift from God,” they added.
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Paslay and Natalie decided to keep their little one’s sex a surprise until her birth, telling PEOPLE, “How many surprises are there where you’ll be equally happy no matter what it is? We were just praying for healthy. Neither of us had a clue what she would be, and we felt like people were guessing both genders fairly equally.”
One very special person in their lives had a hunch, though. “The one gender prediction that really stuck with us happened really early. Like, really early — before we knew we were pregnant!” they say. “Natalie’s 92-year-old grandpa walked out one morning, looked at Natalie and asked her where her little girl was.”
“We were all really surprised and explained to him that Nat didn’t have a little girl,” the couple continue. “He smiled, shrugged it off and said he must have dreamed it. Natalie and I about lost it! [We’re] glad his dream came true!”
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Paslay, 35, discussed the couple’s baby joy in July during an interview with Las Vegas radio show Flip the Strip, where he originally said he and Natalie would be keeping the baby’s sex a “surprise” until his or her birth.
“Even if we know, it’s not going to change anything,” explained the country crooner. “I’m cool with a daughter or a son.”
They also weren’t in a rush to decide on a name quite yet. “We have none. You think about [names], but Natalie is like, ‘I have none,’ ” Paslay said. “But it will find us.”
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Via Instagram, the couple announced the previous week that they were expecting, sharing a photo of them kissing near a cheeky homemade sign that read, “Need Diaper $.”
“It’s pretty wild,” Paslay said in his Flip the Strip interview. “We were in London and felt like that was a good place to go busking for dollars for diaper money.”
“We didn’t post the picture until we told family so they didn’t feel weird, but we were a lot further along than most people when they announce,” added the “Song About a Girl” singer. “We just felt like it was time.”
Paslay, who has released five No. 1 hits, is currently in the studio working on his next album and recently recorded a live album as well. Both are expected to be released in 2019.
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