VACAVILLE, Calif. (KRON) – A California family said they couldn’t wait for their son to be born – and apparently he couldn’t wait, either.

Thomas Johnson was born one week early on the family’s front lawn in Vacaville.

Contractions started slowly, said mother Emily Johnson. When they were about five minutes apart, she and her husband Michael prepared to go to the hospital. But then the contractions started coming faster.

“I was like, ‘Oh God, I don’t know if we’re going to make it,'” said Johnson, who wasn’t due for another week. “No one was expecting him to be born that day, definitely I wasn’t.”

She told KRON she tried to get into the car but knew she wasn’t going to make it to the hospital.

“I totally did not want to have a baby on the lawn,” she said.

But of course, that’s exactly what happened. Twelve minutes after she decided she wasn’t going to be able to get in the car, Johnson delivered the baby in front of the house, just as the paramedics pulled up. The delivery was recorded by the family’s doorbell camera.

“Dad got to cut the umbilical cord with a scalpel in the front yard,” she said.

Mom and baby were taken to the hospital after the delivery and are healthy. Their older son was in his car seat watching as his mom delivered baby Thomas on the lawn.

The Johnsons say they do want to have another baby someday, and they plan to go to the hospital extra early for that one.