Sina Hutton and Phil Mason had been waiting since December 23 for the birth of their daughter, Neve.

"I had a very long week waiting, every day thinking that she would come," Ms Hutton said, cradling the sleeping Neve in her garden on Saturday afternoon.

"2021 was a pretty difficult year, so I think she just decided she didn't want to have a bar of it.

"It hadn't really sunk in until this morning, I suppose that the baby was actually coming this year. We always thought it'd be last year."

It had been a long night for the pair, with Neve born at 7.05am on Saturday at their home.

"We're pretty tired. We're just catching up because we haven't had any sleep for a few nights," Ms Hutton said.

"We're all also just adjusting our two-year-old to having a little sister today."

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Big sister Lara Mason was excited about the new baby, though she didn't quite understand her new role, Mr Mason said.

Rapidly climbing COVID-19 cases around Australia layered stress on Ms Hutton's pregnancy, with the territory recording 448 new cases of the virus on New Year's Day.

"It certainly added to the noise in the background while you're pregnant, and made you want to switch off really from any bad news," she said.

"We couldn't make plans because Neve was due so close to Christmas. We didn't have any family around as well, because a lot of our family is interstate and overseas."

Family will be getting to know Neve via FaceTime for now.

Lachy Hunter, born at 2.48am on Saturday, was Centenary Hospital's first baby of the year.

"We were thinking that he would come on the 31^st, but I think he decided to wait for this fresh new year," mum Maddy Norton said.

"He's going to have a big party for his birthday every single year."

It was "definitely a different new year to normal", Ms Norton said. But different doesn't feel so unfamiliar for her, having given birth to both her children, including 14-month-old son Jack Hunter, during the pandemic.

"I've had to attend a lot of appointments by myself. Ben missed a lot of milestones like hearing both boys' heartbeats for the first time," she said.

"Since we've been in hospital today, we have not left the one single room that we're in, we can't even go to a cafe to go get lunch or something."

Despite the barrier of PPE and hurdles presented by the pandemic, Ms Norton said she felt in good hands with healthcare professionals.

"One of the midwives that has helped us through ... she cried when Lachy was born," she said.

"But we we didn't know that, she had to tell us that afterwards. They've got big masks on and like a plastic shield over their face, so all credit to them.

"I don't know how they're struggling through with that."

With many family members away on holidays or interstate, Ms Norton and husband Ben Hunter will use the time to settle in at home with their new son.

"We need to introduce him to Jack, which is going to be very interesting, I don't think he's going to quite understand what's going on."

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