Garrett Hedlund Admits He 'Can't Handle' Letting Son Cry It Out — and Tim McGraw Offers Advice

New dad Garrett Hedlund is adjusting to sleepless nights.

The 36-year-old United States vs. Billie Holiday actor and Emma Roberts recently welcomed their first child together, son Rhodes Robert. In a conversation with the baby boy's godfather, country star Tim McGraw, for LEOedit.com, Hedlund shares what it's been like having a newborn to care for.

"He is 3 weeks old," Hedlund says at the time of the interview. "I know at a certain point the best thing to do is to let them cry themselves to sleep, but I can't handle it. I'll hold him quietly and awake all through the night."

"I know that for us, as babies growing up, eventually you're left to cry and sort that out. But I can't handle it at this point," he adds. "Which is a wonderful thing, but eventually I'm going to have to let him cry himself to sleep."

McGraw — who played Hedlund's father in 2004's Friday Night Lights and again costarred with him in 2010's Country Strong — recalls his fair share of sleepless nights with babies. McGraw, 53, shares three daughters — Gracie, 23, Maggie, 22, and Audrey, 19 — with wife Faith Hill.

"Eventually, but it is still tough," he tells Hedlund with a laugh. "It's never easy and it's never going to get easy. The way to fix that is to just throw a couple other kids in there; then you don't think about it as much!"

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McGraw says that his first child, Gracie, would often end up in bed with him and Faith as they navigated nighttime routines.

"When we were taking her home [from the hospital], we couldn't believe they were letting us take this baby home. We didn't know what we were doing," McGraw remembers. "I can't believe they let us put her in the car with us and bring her home."

"Here's one of the things that we did that was really so beautiful for us," he continues. "What we did is that we told everyone that for six weeks, we just didn't want anybody to come. I mean, they could come say hi or something like that, but we wanted to spend that time with her. We rarely left the house. We stayed there with her."

The singer says, as new parents at the time, they didn't even use the nursery they built.

"We ended up putting a bassinet right by our bed, and every time she would cry, we would put her in bed with us," he says, also admitting that was "probably not the best thing to do." "So it took a while to break that. Like you were saying, not wanting to hear Rhodes cry because you couldn't handle it — we were in the same boat."

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Later in the conversation, Hedlund asks McGraw whether baby milestones ever "get old" or if the many firsts remain exciting. The musician assures that they stay noteworthy.

"In your life as you move forward, you are always going to have a first word and a first step in everything you do. … Here is what you can want for your kids: You hope for the rest of their life that they will always have the opportunity to take a first step on a great adventure," he says.

Responds Hedlund, "That's beautiful. I'm always going to hang on to this [conversation]."

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