It’s a boy!
Danielle Fishel — best known for her role in the ’90s sitcom Boy Meets World and its sequel spin-off Girl Meets World — and her husband, Jensen Karp, welcomed their first child, a baby boy, on June 24, they announced on Instagram Monday.
The newborn arrived a month before his due date, they shared, telling PEOPLE exclusively that Adler’s middle name, Lawrence, was chosen in honor of Karp’s father, who died 11 years ago. (Incidentally, it is also the maiden name of Fishel’s Boy Meets World character, Topanga Lawrence Matthews.)
“One week ago today, on 6/24 at 4: 52am, Adler Lawrence Karp made his entrance into the world, 4 weeks early,” Fishel, 38, began the caption on her post. “My water broke on 6/20, one day before my work week directing at Raven’s Home ended and my maternity leave began. I was hospitalized that night and put on magnesium sulfate because Adler was only 35 weeks old.”
“Unfortunately, after doing an ultrasound, our amazing OB discovered fluid in his lungs that was not there during our last appointment only 10 days earlier — and thus we entered a nightmare we’ll never forget,” she recalled.
“We still don’t have Adler home with us because the deeply good doctors and nurses in the NICU are working diligently to find out why the fluid is there and determine the best way to get it out,” Fishel continued. “This has been the most trying week and a half of mine and @jensenkarp‘s lives but we have gotten through it with the support of our incredible family and friends who have shown up for us in unexpected ways.”
“Jensen and I have also become closer than we ever thought possible and the love between us has grown exponentially as we have leaned on each other during both our highest highs and our lowest lows,” she wrote. “We feel helpless and powerless and useless and we wanted so badly to follow our ‘birth plan,’ unsurprisingly none of which involved leaving our beautiful baby boy at the hospital for the first weeks of his life.”
The actress also revealed she and her husband “struggled with making this announcement” because although they are “THRILLED Adler is here” and want to shout it from the rooftops, they’ve been dealing with “prying eyes — aka paparazzi staked outside our house, following our every move they way they did several times during my pregnancy. We are much too fragile for that right now and I pray wholeheartedly that we can have some space as we navigate these next few weeks.”
“I can’t wait to share more details about him with you (he hates having a poopy diaper for even 1 minute, he loves bath time, he has the cutest sneezes I’ve ever heard) and sing the praises of his NICU care team but I prefer to do that when Adler is in this crib in his nursery at home on a still unknown future date,” Fishel continued, concluding, “P.S. the fox will be removed from his crib before he’s ever in it.”
The actress announced her pregnancy in an emotional social-media post in January.
“I’m eating for two. I’m napping with wild abandon. Baby shoes. Baby clothes. (I’m shopping). I’m nesting. I’m reading books. I’m madly in love with my husband,” Fishel captioned a snapshot of three pairs of sneakers: one for herself, one for Karp (an executive producer of Drop the Mic) and one tiny pair for their little guy on the way.
“I cry at commercials. I’m a walking cliché. I’ve got baby apps. I’m confident. I feel inadequate,” she continued. “I’m showing one day and the next I’m not. I’m nervous. I’m excited. He’s due in July. We can’t wait. #BabyKarp2019”
Fishel and Karp, 39, tied the knot in November 2018, which she confirmed in a sweet post.
“Mr. & Mrs. Karp. Established 11/04/2018,” Fishel wrote on Instagram alongside a wedding photo that showed off the delicate lace short sleeves of her wedding gown.
Sharing another photo from the nuptials — taken by B.O.B. Photography — Karp wrote, “Today I married my soulmate. We were surrounded by family and friends and it was the best day of my life.”
He jokingly added, “I also ate 3 donuts after dinner. Unrelated. @daniellefishel, I love you so much and thank you for giving me this smile.”
Fishel reunited with her former Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World costars Ben Savage, Rider Strong and Will Friedle in early May, when the foursome posed together for a hilarious photo op.
In the adorable picture, Fishel wore a black dress and a denim jacket and cradled her growing baby bump. Surrounding her in coordinating outfits, the three guys all placed their hands on their own bellies.
“Boy Meets Baby Bump(s),” Strong, 39, captioned the cute photo, which was taken during the cast’s appearance at Fan Expo Dallas.
Fishel shared the same image to her Instagram account, quipping in the caption, “Sure this was funny — but only one of us is taking 25 bathroom breaks a day.”