But the little girl, who's yet to be named, let the side down with her weight not nine pounds, but a healthy 7lb 5oz (3.4kg).

Well, four out of five ain't bad. Mum Dhara Patel, 25, said yesterday that the night before the birth her husband, Sudhish Patel, 28, joked the baby would come at nine past nine.

''I told him she was listening to him ... and that it was not in my hands,'' she said. ''We didn't know [the birth time] until the doctor said it was 9.09am. We were very happy. Nine will be her lucky number.'' It's the first child for the couple and she was obviously in a rush to make a numerical name for herself because she arrived three days early.

Her chuffed extended family, including grandfather Vinod Patel, travelled to Canberra from Fiji to meet her. For Mrs Patel, motherhood is ''a great experience of life with many things to sacrifice for our baby''. The new dad said fatherhood meant ''so much joy''. Mr Patel was in the room at the time of the birth and was thrilled to have a daughter.

''Some people say that daughters are closer to dad,'' the proud father said. The baby, 49.5cm long, will be named by her dad's sister in line with Indian tradition. Alisha and Lavanya are likely names. According to numerologist John Bannister, nine is ''a very powerful number tied up with leadership ... integrity and wisdom''. It was also connected to religion and spirituality.

Other positive qualities associated with it were intuition, idealism, vision and creativity, Mr Bannister said. Babies associated with the number nine could go on to teach or work as artists or designers.Thais consider the number nine lucky because their word for the number, ''gao'', also means ''progress'' or ''step forward''. Chinese people also find it auspicious because the Mandarin word for nine sounds like the word for ''long-lasting''. So far this month, 96 babies have been born at Canberra Hospital. Spring, particularly September and October, are typically busy months at the maternity ward.

So far this year, 1772 babies have been born. Twelve were born on Wednesday, of which the Patel infant was the eighth.

Not the ninth.