Kane Brown and his wife, Katelyn, had one of the best-kept secrets in country music in 2021: They were preparing to welcome their second child, baby Kodi Jane. Kodi was born in late December, and her arrival came as a big surprise to fans, who had no idea that Katelyn was pregnant.

Keeping the pregnancy under wraps was a decision the couple made when Katelyn was about four months along, Brown explains during a new interview.

"We're like, 'When are we going to announce it?' And she was like, 'I kinda wanna just keep it a secret,'" the singer recalls. They made the decision to keep the news quiet because they'd had some bad experiences with getting scooped on previous big announcements, he continues.

"I'm not bashing anybody, but last time, I sent a picture to my older brother, and he put it on social media before we announced it," Brown says. "So everybody already knew about it, and it was kind of upsetting."

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It was an issue they'd run into during other big life milestones, too. "And our engagement, when I asked her to marry me, we did a video, just a regular video, in the car, and people saw the ring on her finger. So our fans announced that we were engaged," he goes on to say.

"So it was like, 'We want this — to say that we're having a baby on our own terms," Brown sums up.

This time around, they were careful to avoid the mistakes they'd made with that video they filmed in their car: Brown says that he and Katelyn scoured everything they posted on social media to make sure it didn't have any baby items or pregnancy clues in the background.

"It was crazy, man. I had to stay off social media, because people were sending us stuff. So we had, like, bags that said 'Kodi' on it, new bassinets that Kingsley is too big for. And we would do videos, we would have to see what was in the background to make sure. It was insane," Brown recalls. "So I was like, 'I'm just not gonna post.'"

But he couldn't avoid running into fans in the real world, and once again, the superstar couple had to come up with creative ways to hide the fact that Katelyn was pregnant.

"She'd wear baggy clothes, but if you got close to her, you could kinda tell that she had a belly," Brown says. "If I saw a fan that I knew was gonna recognize me, I would, like, stand on that side of her, and I would have her pushing the stroller, just to do whatever I could to block her."

Though the couple may have kept Kodi's impending arrival under wraps during the nine months that Katelyn was pregnant, they've since shared plenty of special memories of that time with fans, posting stunning maternity shoot photos and sharing videos of special moments, like the way that Katelyn told Brown they were expecting.

"These past 9 months have been so sacred and special to me," Katelyn reflected on social media, "Choosing to keep my pregnancy quiet was the best decision I've ever made. Soaking in special moments with my daughter and husband without the influence of social media and outside world made this time that much more intimate and unforgettable."

Meet the Country Babies Born in 2021:

Welcome to the world, boys and girls! These babies are the newest members of the country music family, all born in 2021.

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