Linda Ackley went to Allegiance Health Friday morning thinking she had a hernia.

By Friday night, she gave birth to a 10-pound baby.

"Some people have nine months to prepare. I had (15) hours," her husband, Mike, told the Jackson Citizen Patriot (http://bit.ly/XvFVRa ) on Monday.

Unaware of her pregnancy until the day she delivered, Linda Ackley, 44, of Summit Township underwent an emergency C-section on Friday.

Kimberly Kay Ackley, the couple's first child, was born at 11:20 p.m. She is normal and healthy, and weighed 10 pounds, 1 ounce, Mike and Linda Ackley said.

The girl and her mother were discharged from the hospital Monday afternoon.

Linda Ackley's sister, Rosie Konopka, 48, of Jackson, drove them, and stopped at the Jackson County Courthouse, where Mike Ackley, 45, works as a security guard.

A stream of employees came to catch a glimpse of the girl. They called her beautiful, admired her tiny features and cooed about her full head of dark hair. Mike Ackley proudly carried her about the hallways.

"She is our miracle baby," said Linda Ackley, who never thought she could have children. Two years ago, she had an infection and significant abdominal surgery.

Her survival alone was a blessing.

When she first told Mike Ackley the news of their baby, her eyes were filled with tears, her husband said.

It is good he was sitting, she said.

"I wish someone would have taken a picture of my face," Mike Ackley said.

Calling the development surprising seems inadequate, he said. "That doesn't even come close."

Last week, Linda Ackley went to the doctor because she had some bloating in her abdomen.

Believing she might have a hernia, the doctor sent her to an Allegiance Health facility for a computerized tomography or CT scan.

The scan revealed she was pregnant.

She would deliver in three to four weeks, medical professionals at first told the Ackleys.

After a second ultrasound, however, the couple learned Linda Ackley had carried the baby a full term, 40 or more weeks.

The hospital scheduled a C-section.

"I was happy and shocked at the same time, and scared," Mike Ackley said.

He and his wife have been married for 24 years. They met at Jackson High School and became a couple when he was a junior and she was a sophomore.

They never thought children were possible; they had not taken measures to protect against pregnancy and the babies never came.

In February 2011, Linda Ackley contracted necrotizing fasciitis, a bacterial infection that attacks soft tissue.

Mike Ackley thought she was having a stroke.