BOSTON -- A woman was resting comfortably in the hospital Wednesday after delivering her own baby in her car as her husband raced the couple to the hospital.

Video: Baby Born In SUV

Melissa Dunn, 30, a mother of two boys, wasn't due to deliver her third child until May 31, but she went into labor unexpectedly about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, Boston television station WCVB reported.

She told her husband Greg, 30, that they should head to Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, Mass., 15 minutes away. But even that short ride was too long.

"I didn't realize I was in such hard labor, and by the time I did, I said, 'I need to go right now,'" Melissa Dunn said in a phone interview from her hospital room.

The couple jumped in the car for what turned out to be an 8-minute ride to the hospital, but as they neared the exit ramp, Melissa could feel the baby coming.

As she rode in the front passenger seat of her Dodge Durango, Melissa said she didn't have many choices.

"There really wasn't any time. I just did what I had to do," she said. "I just used a towel that I was sitting on and used that to catch her."

Her husband, who did not want to stop the car, was "kind of freaking out a little bit," she said.

"He told me, 'You can't have her now,'" Melissa said, but, "I had to do it. I didn't have time to panic or anything."

Within moments, Grace Maria Dunn was born, all 6 pounds, 5 ounces of her.

All in all, Melissa said, she was in labor for about 90 minutes.

"She cried. I put my finger in her mouth and moved it around. She did let out a cry and ... everything was absolutely perfect. I wrapped her in the towel and held her tight."

Dunn said that when the family arrived at the hospital minutes later, her husband, a machinist in Rockland, ran out to alert emergency room staffers, who rushed out to help.

Grace will join her brothers Nicholas, 5, and Matt, 13, when Melissa goes home from the hospital in a few days. Until then, their grandmother is taking care of the boys.

The baby did have to undergo a few blood tests because the umbilical cord wasn't clamped right away, Melissa said. Other than that, she's expected to be just fine.

"It's definitely hitting me. Wow. I can't believe that really happened to me," Melissa said.