Depends what you mean by 'staying present'? I was busy texting my doula and talking to my midwife on the phone, we were trying to work out if they were established contractions LOL. Looks like they were! I didn't get into a 'zone' tho. I had a shower, got out and timed a couple of contractions, walked around the house going 'holy crap, this feels really fast', yelled at DH cos he hadn't put plastic sheets under the pool LOL, got on the phone to my midwife and decided she should make her way here, after that phone call I thought ok.. chill.. just stop and concentrate on these contractions. Then I started pushing.. I was in denial at that point LOL and held back a couple of pushes.. then I couldn't help it. I really liked that it was quick, beats a long tiring labour! We sat and watched the rest of the tv show we were watching when all was done and dusted LOL. That felt pretty weird.. was watching it with a big belly one minute.. then a few hours later I was watching it with baby in my arms!

I will add tho... that short labour would have been a NIGHTMARE if I had been trying to get to a hospital! It would have been a side of the road birth, and that would just be awful. I wouldnt' have been able to organise my kids and get to hospital in the time it took for us to realise this was really it and her being born. So it worked out ideally for me because everyone was rushing to me instead of me rushing to hospital