Courtney Brown of Kettering left her night job Sunday morning suddenly feeling back pain, not realizing it was the beginning of labor pains.
The mother of three was, in fact, nine months pregnant with her fourth child and didn’t realize it.
“I’m still in shock. It still hasn’t fully processed,” Brown said Tuesday at Kettering Medical Center while holding her new baby boy.
Lucas Callen Brownlee was born at 4:03 p.m. Sunday, weighing 8 pounds, 7 ounces.
“I actually delivered Lucas not knowing that I was 41 weeks pregnant,” she said. “How do you explain you didn’t know you were pregnant for 41 weeks?”
Brown works full time. She and her fiance have been raising their 5-year-old daughter and 16-month-old boy/girl twins.
In looking back over the past nine months, Brown said she kept dismissing the typical pregnancy symptoms of tiredness and nausea as stress.
“You would think I would have known,” she said. “I didn’t gain weight. (It was) nothing like a normal pregnancy.”
Doctors, who thought initially she had kidney stones, told Brown surprise babies happen more often than people realize.
The phenomenon is common enough for a reality show on TLC — “I Didn’t Know I was Pregnant.”
Statistics also suggest “cryptic pregnancy” is not that rare, according to science writer Jena Pincott, who reported in 2011 for The Huffington Post that one in 2,500 women don’t know they’re pregnant until they’re in labor.
Brown has reached out through social media in an effort to get supplies, like a car seat, baby monitor, bottle warmer and baby bath.
On Tuesday, when Lucas was cleared to go home from the hospital, Brown said they were arranging to pick up some baby clothes and a bassinet.
“I get to take him home today, hopefully he’s as stubborn as the rest of them so that he fits in well,” she said.