When his wife went into labor at home Wednesday morning, Jesse McGregor wasn't worried.

The couple planned to deliver their second child there with the help of a midwife. They had a birthing tub. They had all the necessary tools.

They didn't have the midwife.

Ann McGregor felt contractions about 5 a.m., called her midwife who lives in South Dakota and waited in the birthing tub. When her water broke, the couple decided to drive to Wyoming Medical Center. They got dressed but stopped when Ann reached down and felt the baby's head.

"I knew she wasn't going back in," Ann McGregor said.

They moved to the bedroom, set up for the birth, and Jesse McGregor called 911 at 7:48 a.m.

The couple had their first child in a birthing center. A midwife delivered the baby, explaining every step to McGregor. He tried to remember those steps while talking to dispatcher Jennifer Macomb.

"With my first daughter, I was pretty involved," he said. "I tried to remember that -- checking for the cord, making sure she came out the right way, everything."

Despite the circumstances, McGregor remained composed, Macomb said.

"Dad was absolutely calm," she recalled. "Most dads will have a little bit of fear, but he was just ready for instructions and he didn't waiver at all."

Ann McGregor said she wasn't worried: Jesse and Macomb worked as a team. She said he did a great job, just like he did during the 19-hour delivery of first child Emma.

"We figured if this birth took half as long as the first, we would have at least 10 hours," Jesse said.

But Hazel Moxie McGregor couldn't wait. She was born into her father's hands five minutes after the 911 call.

When he caught her, McGregor said his heart stopped for a couple of seconds. He hoped she would be OK. Then she started breathing -- relief.

On the other end of the line, Macomb was elated.

"It was indescribable," she said. "I mean you wait for that cry because you want to know that they are OK."

Dispatchers frequently take calls about women in labor, but it's rare for the birth to happen before emergency responders arrive, Macomb said. She's been a dispatcher for four years, and it's the first time she's had to talk a caller through the entire experience.

"We've come very close, but never a complete birth," she said. "Fire usually gets on scene and take over from there."

When firefighters arrived two minutes after the birth, McGregor was more than happy to hand over the surgical clamps. Hazel passed the newborn tests, weighing in at 8 pounds and 15 ounces.

"She's happy and she's alert -- she's anything you could want," McGregor said.