Walker Hayes and Wife, Laney, Open Up About the Devastating Loss of Their Daughter

Walker Hayes and his wife, Laney, lived every parent's nightmare when they lost their precious child, Oakleigh Klover, while Laney was in labor. Now, Hayes is opening up about the family's grief, revealing for the first time that Laney's life also hung in the balance as well.

"I just waited," Walker recalls to PEOPLE. "I really just hoped that this wasn't going to be the worst day of my life, even though it kind of already was."

Oakleigh is the couple's seventh child, so it didn't take long for Walker and Laney to realize something was wrong when Laney went into labor. She was soon rushed into his emergency surgery for a uterine rupture, while the nurse delivered the devastating news to Walker.

"What do I do?" Hayes remembers thinking. "When Laney wakes up, how do I tell her? How am I the one to explain, 'It's a girl, but you know, she died?' I knew that was just going to crush Laney."

The couple planned to do a home birth for the first time, but the midwife soon realized the heartbeat was fading, while Laney experienced severe, non-stop pain in her abdomen.

"Oakleigh was in my abdominal cavity, and that's what all the pressure was," Laney recounts. "But we didn't know that then, obviously."

Laney was rushed to the hospital, but even as she was going into emergency surgery, she still held on to hope for her unborn daughter.

"I remember going to sleep hoping the baby was okay," Laney says. "I had no idea I was in danger … I remember feeling like I didn't think it was all going to be okay, but still hoping."

It was a long few hours for Walker, while Laney received numerous transfusions to save her life.

"Surgery just seemed to never end, and someone would continue to come to me and say things that I didn't really understand like, 'We may have to use this much to replace this blood,' " he says. "That is when I began to worry for my wife's life, and of course I'm freaking out."

After Laney came out of surgery, Walker and Laney made the difficult decision to spend the day with Oakleigh, even though the baby was no longer alive, joined by their oldest daughter, Lela, 12, their good friend Craig (the subject of the song), and Craig's wife, Laura.

"Watching Walker hold her, you felt like she's just going to wake up," Laney shares. "You think, 'Oh, please, just let her start breathing'. … She was swaddled and she just looked like a newborn baby."

Although Walker and Laney are immensely grateful for their six children, they will always feel the emptiness of Oakleigh's absence.

"I lost my last baby and now I'm done?" says Laney, who was also told she cannot carry another pregnancy. "That's hard."

"[My children] are more than enough to me," she adds. "I do want them to know they're wonderful and enough. But, I can also be sad about missing Oakleigh, just like they are. It's a process, and it will be forever."

Still, Walker and Laney find comfort in each other, their children and their faith, and refuse to dwell on the past.

"Laney and I have cried a lot," Hayes concedes, "but one thing that makes me the happiest is how much love there has been around us. We've had the most remarkable questions answered and advice given from people around our neighborhood and in meet-and-greet lines. People walk up to me and tell me their life, and it's like, 'Geez, thank you for sharing.' I don't even know these people."

Hayes is spending much of the next few months on the road. Find dates at WalkerHayes.com.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Jason Kempin