On January 17, 2022, Maddie & Tae’s Taylor Kerr welcomed her first child, a daughter named Leighton Grace Kerr, nearly 12 weeks early.
“She’s beautiful, strong and everything we have ever dreamed of. she decided to be a Capricorn like her daddy. we already can’t wait for the day we get to finally take her home,” the singer wrote on her Instagram announcing her daughter’s birth.
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53 long days later, Taylor and her husband Josh Kerr were able to bring home their daughter from the NICU. They made the following announcement on Instagram:
“After 53 days in the NICU our sweet Leighton Grace Kerr came home today. We have been blown away by all of the support and can’t thank you enough for praying her home. We were also blessed with so many amazing NICU nurses and staff along the way.”
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On April 6, Taylor celebrated Leighton’s actual due date with a sweet photo of her, Josh, and the baby. She said, “happy due date, baby girl!”
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The official Maddie and Tae YouTube celebrated Baby Leighton’s due date with a video of Tae explaining her birth story and their journey in the NICU.
“In honor of today, April 6th, being my daughter Leighton’s due date, my husband and I kind of wanted to let you guys in on what life looked like the last four months and through the pregnancy. Quite a lot has gone down. We wanted to share this with you. This is Leighton’s story,” Taylor said.
She explained that she has known for her entire pregnancy, she knew her cervix was short and that doctors would continue to monitor her at every appointment. She went in for her 24-week check-up where her doctor told her she was in preterm labor.
“During the ultrasound, they realized it had gotten worse, and I didn’t have much of a cervix left,” Tae said. “I got sent to the hospital immediately, met my husband there and was put on strict bed rest.”
She then detailed how the next few weeks went, including celebrating Christmas and Josh’s 30th birthday in the hospital. They had high hopes they’d be able to go home after three weeks, but unfortunately, Taylor needed to stay in the hospital until she eventually gave birth, which happened a lot sooner than any of them would have expected.
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To pass the time, Taylor and Josh played cards, Taylor’s bandmate Maddie dropped off some cross-stitching for her to do, and Josh even brought some of his recording equipment and wrote music.
Then, Taylor went into labor and the doctors even thought her water broke, which it didn’t. She had to get a magnesium drip to stop labor and it worked. But, on January 12, Taylor went into labor for real this time.
During one clip, Taylor tearfully said, “Well, I have been in labor for 72 hours. I’ve been on an epidural for 60+ hours. It’s a really discouraging feeling. I feel really defeated. I’m exhausted. And I’m just scared. I don’t understand why this is happening. It’s really confusing. But she’s healthy, and she looks great on the monitors. Her heart rate is great. She’s so active. She’s perfect.”
After being in labor for a total of five days, Leighton Grace Kerr was born weighing 2 lbs 5 oz. Immediately, Leighton went to the NICU and Taylor said, “Our NICU journey began.”
She saw Leighton everyday, doing skin to skin with her. She also read to Leighton, sang, to her. How lucky is Leighton that she gets to have lullabies sung to her by professional singers?!
Taylor said, “The baby was in the neonatal intensive care unit for 53 days. She fought like hell. I’m so proud of her. Leighton had the best nurses. They made the journey so much easier on me and Leighton. She knew she was being taken care of. She knew she was loved every single second of every day.”
The family of three have been home now for almost a month, and already, Taylor says, “This is her world, and we are just living in it. We are soaking up every single second with our miracle baby.”
Watch the full, emotional video below.