Seth Meyers Shares the Unbelievable Birth of His Second Son —In His Building’s Elevator Lobby
Congratulations are in order to Late Night host Seth Meyers and his wife Alexi Ashe on the birth of their second child, a son they’ve named Axel Strahl Meyers. However, Axel’s arrival was a bit on the unconventional side, and Seth shared the whole story on his show Monday night.
According to Seth, Sunday started out “totally normal,” with brunch and a trip to the park. Alexi was having contractions, but they were twenty minutes apart and they decided to head to the hospital later that day. As Seth was feeding lunch to their two year old son Ashe, his mother-in-law announced, “‘we have to go to the hospital NOW’,which was not the calm I was looking for,” he says.
Seth called an Uber as he, Alexi, his mother-in-law, and the doula piled into the elevator, while Alexi was “having one long contraction.” And by the time they reached the lobby, she knew the baby was not waiting until the hospital.
“My wife just says, ‘I can’t get in the car. I’m going to have the baby right now. The baby is coming.’ I’m just trying to calm her down,” Seth says. “It looked like someone who was hiding a baby in a pair of sweatpants. It was like someone was trying to sneak a baby on a plane!”
As they circled around Alexi on the lobby floor, Seth called 911, but everything happened so fast. “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,” Seth continued. “I went from someone calling in about an emergency to just sharing good news with a stranger. Like, ‘Yeah, it’s a boy!'”
The NYFD and NYPD showed up and cut the umbilical cord, and then the EMTs arrived to take everyone to the hospital.
Seth and Alexi only moved into the building at the end of 2017 (after listing their old place in the West Village), but they experienced an “incredible outpouring of kindness” from the neighbors, who brought blankets and warmed towels in the dryer for the newborn while they waited for help. Seth kept apologizing and (obviously) receiving sweet responses: “There’s no alternative; it’s not like I would say, ‘oh my god, I’m so sorry,’ and they would say, ‘THIS ISN’T WHAT THE LOBBY’S FOR!'” He also joked that he’s glad they were already co-op approved.
Check out the full video below: