Hannah Wanner is the very definition of a precocious child.

Back on March 21, two weeks ahead of her due date, she caught her mother off guard by deciding it was time to be born.

For Lorna Wanner, this was child No. 4, and there had been no complications during her pregnancy so it had the potential to be a pretty routine birth.

And in fact, she now says, "in some ways it was the easiest," particularly her recovery.

But it was, at the same time, her most unusual and scariest delivery because Wanner was at home, with no adult help, in the middle of the night when she cradled little Hannah in her arms for the first time.

Hannah is healthy, although she has had a few allergic reactions to food, with no apparent scars from her unusual entry into the world.

Nine months ago, it was 11:30 p.m., and Wanner was sitting in the living room of her home on the Floyd County line just off U.S. 221.

Her husband, David, was at his engineering job at General Electric in Salem, her three other children were asleep upstairs.

Suddenly, Lorna Wanner knew she was in labor.

She called 911 for help, but Hannah slid into the world as her mom lay flat on her back on the floor listening to instructions from Roanoke County emergency services dispatcher Christy Gorth.

For 12 minutes, Gorth relayed instructions and comfort as Wanner waited for the Bent Mountain Rescue Squad to arrive.

Her biggest worry during the delivery, Wanner said, was wondering whether she had locked the front door.

But the rescue squad members were able to get in and took little Hannah in one vehicle and her mom in another to Lewis-Gale Medical Center for a checkup.

Hannah was fine, and Wanner said she believes the delay in removing the remainder of the placenta until she got to the hospital -- "the ambulance folks were not thrilled with that prospect" -- may have made her recovery easier.

Baby Hannah had a touch of jaundice -- a trait shared with her three siblings -- and seemed to react to a few things her mother had eaten.

At one point, she had trouble keeping her mother's milk down. Wanner said she likes to bake, and "I eat a lot of bread. Hannah stopped throwing up when I stopped eating bread."

Then the baby had asthmalike reactions that led to doctor's visits until Wanner linked them to times she had eaten eggs. So those are off her diet now, too.

"But those problems are not a result of her having been born the way she was," Wanner said.

Hannah was trying to stand at 2 to 3 months, and while she's having a little trouble keeping her crawl moving forward rather than back, she's developing just fine.

Wanner has seen Gorth a couple of times since the birth, including delivering a loaf of homemade bread to her.

And Wanner's parents visited from their home in England in May to see the newest addition to the family.

Rachel, 2, seems to have adjusted to giving up her position as the center of attention and joins older brothers Marcus, 11, and Edward, 10, in trying to take care of her little sister, especially while the boys are tied up with their home school studies.

"Life is good," Wanner said. "I can't complain."