American Idol alum Scotty McCreery has become a father.
The country music star and his wife Gabi welcomed a healthy baby boy named Merrick ‘Avery’ McCreery into the world on Monday (24.10.22), 11 days before the baby’s due date.
Alongside a series of photos from the hospital, the new dad said on Instagram: “I’ve never known love like this. Merrick ‘Avery’ McCreery joined us 11 days earlier on October 24th at 4: 34am!7lbs 13oz of nothing but love.
“Thank you all for all your prayers during this exciting season of life! Healthy baby and a healthy mom! Praise God.”
The 29-year-old singer has been married to nurse Gabi since 2018 and, announcing the pregnancy in June, said “now feels like a good time to settle down”.
She said: “We have a little man on the way! We always knew we wanted kids, but we always knew we wanted the early years to travel and have time on the road and see things and experience life. We’ve managed to live a lot of life and doing interesting things, so now seems like a good time to settle down a bit and expand the family.”
The ‘Damn Strait’ hitmaker, who rose to fame when he won ‘American Idol’ in 2011, went on to explain that he initially suspected the baby would be a girl due to his blended family histories, but be a “good surprise”. ” to find out otherwise and is excited to teach his son sports.
She told PEOPLE at the time, “I was the only boy on both sides of my family, the last McCreery child around. Gabi is from two sisters in her family, so I thought it would be a girl . But we had a surprise. of a boy! We would have loved either, but I grew up playing sports, so introducing him to baseball, which was my first love right there with music, and the golf are small things that [will be great]!”
Gabi claimed her career as a nurse has “definitely prepared” her for motherhood.
She said: “Being a nurse has definitely taught me the ropes a bit. Even just changing diapers several times a day and figuring out how to calm the baby when he’s upset has definitely helped. Definitely. I’m sorry which has prepared me in many ways.”
