Huge congratulations are in order!
Chat show host Seth Meyers and his wife Alexi Ashe welcomed their second child this week – and in a very unusual way.
The 44-year-old shared the happy news with the audience and viewers on Late Night With Seth Meyers during his monologue on Monday night.
Recalling the birth of their first son in an Uber two years ago, Meyers joked:
“Move over, that story, because that’s so normal compared to what happened yesterday.”
He said that earlier in the day, Alexi said that she was “feeling something” while they were out and about – and they thought she might give brith pretty soon, planning to “work their way” to the hospital that day.
But the couple weren’t quite expecting just how soon their baby boy would arrive.
When Seth was feeding their son lunch later that day, his mother-in-law came running down the stairs and told him it was time.
The chat show host called an Uber and they began to head to the lobby – only, they didn’t make it inside.
Seth recalled:
“My wife just says, ‘I can’t get in that car. I’m going to have the baby right now. The baby is coming.”
The dad said that he had tried to calm her down, insisting they had plenty of time – and even their doula was telling them the same thing.
He recalled:
“My wife was saying, ‘The baby is coming. The baby is out.'”
The doula confirmed that the baby was on the way then and there, so, with no other options, Alexi laid down on the floor of the lobby as he rang 911.
And the phone call went really, really quick.
He said:
“Over the course of a minute conversation, I basically said, ‘We’re about to have a baby, we’re having a baby, we had a baby.’ I went from someone calling in about an emergency to sharing good news with a stranger.”
The fire department and EMTs soon arrived to cut the umbilical cord, with neighbours bringing the family warm blankets and towels.
He explained the they named the little boy Axel Strahl: Axel, because it was a name they “just liked” and Strahl, Alexi’s mum’s maiden name.
He continued:
“I’ve never met my wife’s grandparents, but I’ve heard so much about them, and they were Holocaust survivors who met the day after they were liberated. They met at a hospital in Austria.
“Days like this, when someone is born, you have such appreciation for everyone in your lineage who lived so that you could have this moment.
“So, we’re so happy to give him this name for people who obviously had to work so hard to do that.”
The comedian went on to praise his wife for staying calm, getting visibly emotional as he told how she showed him everything would be “fine forever”.
Getting choked up, he continued:
“But of course, mostly I just want to thank my wife, who obviously has to get an apartment closer to the hospital.
“She’s so amazing. My kids, I haven’t known ’em very long, but I can guarantee I’m gonna love them unconditionally forever.
“As far as the speed in which she took this guy and had him on her, I just watched him like, ‘That kid’s going to be fine forever because of her.’
“She’s really amazing; I’m still getting choked up thinking about how brave I was.”
