Late Night host Seth Meyers and his wife Alexi Ashe welcomed their second son on April 8, and, as Meyers recently told his television audience, it was another very quick birth. Two years ago Ashe almost delivered their first son, Ashe Olsen, in an Uber en route to the hospital, but their second birth story ended before the Uber ride even began. “Move over that story, because that’s so normal compared to what happened [Sunday],” Meyers told viewers during Monday night’s show.


This time the couple didn’t even make it out of their apartment building’s lobby.

After spending the day brunching and walking around the park, Meyers says Ashe thought she might give birth “soon,” but didn’t realize just how soon until it started happening in their NYC apartment. Meyers called an Uber, but they didn’t even get that far.

“I called 911 and over the course of a minute conversation, I said, ‘We’re about to have a baby — we’re having a baby — we had a baby,” Meyers said, tearing up on TV.

“My wife just says, ‘I can’t get in that car. I’m going to have the baby right now. The baby is coming,'” he recalled. “My wife was saying, ‘The baby is coming. The baby is out. ‘”

Luckily, Ashe’s doula was on scene and confirmed mama was right, although according to Meyers it was pretty obvious.

“I looked at my wife. The only way to describe it, like someone hiding a baby in a pair of sweatpants. It was like somebody was trying to sneak the baby on a plane.”

According to Meyers, Ashe was “incredibly calm” during the precipitous birth. The couple are grateful for the Fire Department and New York Police Department who arrived just after Ashe did.

The late-night host noted that his wife was “incredibly calm” given the extreme circumstances.

Thankfully, members of the Fire Department and New York Police Department arrived shortly after the baby was born, and helped to cut the umbilical cord while the couple’s neighbors put towels in their dryers to help keep the baby warm right after its birth.

Second-time births are typically faster than a woman’s first labor, and a history of rapid labor (like Ashe had in that Uber a couple years ago) increases a woman’s chances for another quick birth. While the fast arrival of little Axel Strahl surprised his parents, it’s not medically unprecedented.

The couple continued their preference for family names in choosing one for their little early arrival. Their oldest son took Ashe’s last name as his first, and his middle name, Olsen, is Meyer’s mother’s maiden name. Axel’s first name isn’t a family name, but his middle name, Strahl, is in honor of his maternal great-grandparents, who survived the holocaust and met after being liberated from a concentration camp.

This is a family that has some amazing stories, and little Axel started his life by adding a tale his own grandkids will likely hear some day. Congrats to Seth and Alexi! ?

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