Songfacts®:

• The Highwomen's Natalie Hemby is married to record producer Mike Wruck. Hemby was 34 when she gave birth to their daughter, Sammie Jo, their only child. Here, she sings about her love for her daughter and her disappointment that her family is unlikely to get any bigger now that she's turned 40.
• I know you wish
  You had a brother who had blue eyes just like you
  I know you wish
  You had a sister you could tell your secrets to
  
  Hemby told The Boot she found inspiration for this track after Sammie Jo began asking her mom for a baby brother or sister. Her daughter was about six years old at the time, and Hemby didn't want to explain "about cobwebs and ovaries and things like that."
  
  This prompted Hemby to start going through Sammie Jo's stuff, and she started weeping at the thought that this could be the last time she would raise her own child.
  
  Still emotional, the line, "I'm sure you wish you had a brother who had blue eyes just like you" came to her in the shower. Hemby jotted down some more song ideas, which she took to Miranda Lambert. Though her frequent songwriting partner was childless at the time, Lambert was a huge help and her lyrical contributions prompted Hemby to say to her, tearfully, "What the hell is wrong with you?! You don't even have kids!"
  
  As they didn't finish the song, Hemby got together with her Highwomen bandmate Amanda Shires. When she played it for her, Shires too started crying because she only has one child. Together they completed the tune.
• So what does Sammie Jo think of the song? Hemby played "My Only Child" to her for the first time after picking her up from camp. "I played it for her in the car, and I look in the rearview mirror, and she's crying in the back seat," she recalled to The Wall Street Journal. "We just had a moment together."