Home delivery: Firefighter helps brings son into the world on the dining room floor.

It was a good thing Edmonton firefighter Brian McIntyre decided to start paternity leave before his son was born. It was June 2, a week before the due date, that McIntyre’s wife went into labor. There was no time to get Candice to the hospital, but standing by was a natural candidate to fill in as mid-wife. Here are exerpts from the Edmonton Sun:

“I worked the night shift before, got off in the morning and seven hours later…” McIntyre said, motioning to his sleeping six-day old son Ronan.

“I didn’t realize this was going to happen.”

Around 2 p.m. that Wednesday, McIntyre’s wife Candice laid out on the hardwood floor of their home, while McIntyre’s sister was on the phone with 911, yelling out delivery instructions to McIntyre.

After the baby was out, the 42-year-old firefighter grabbed a lime green shoelace off of Candice’s recently purchased Puma sneakers and used it to cut the baby’s umbilical cord.

The entire operation took just ten minutes and three pushes to bring blue-eyed Ronan into the world.

And despite battling fires and being faced with dangerous situations at work each day, McIntyre said delivering a baby was an entirely different challenge.

“It’s harder. I’ve never done it before,” he said. “There’s a lot of adrenaline in a short period of time.”

“I was a nervous wreck (but) right when I got into doing it I kind of forgot about everything else.”

The firefighter added that his friends and family have now started calling him “Dr. McIntyre.”

The family plans to save the shoelaces used to cut the umbilical cord and tell their son about his special delivery when he gets older.

“I’m still using the shoes too,” Candice said, adding that the laces have since been washed.

McIntyre is on paternity leave for three months.