Olivia’s one lucky baby
Born 8/8/08 to parents who should check their lottery tickets
If eight is a lucky number, Olivia Dean Emery must be the luckiest newborn in Spokane.
Nearly eight days overdue, she waited until the eighth minute of 8/8/08 to make her debut at Deaconess Medical Center. Since hospitals run by military time, her tag reads 08/08/08 00:08.
“The doctors and nurses were teasing us that hopefully she’d wait until midnight,” mother Krista Murphy said.
Later that morning Murphy heard about the lucky connotations of the number eight in a TV news report from Beijing, where the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games started at precisely 8:08:08 p.m. The number is considered lucky in Chinese culture because the word for eight is similar to the word for prosperity and wealth.
At least two American babies landed perfect scores. Hailey Jo Hauer, of Fergus Falls, Minn., and Xander Jace Riniker, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, arrived Friday at 8:08 a.m. weighing 8 pounds, 8 ounces, according to news reports.
Meanwhile, a record number of babies were born that day at Spokane’s Sacred Heart Medical Center. Of the 19 lucky newborns, scheduled Caesarean sections accounted for – you guessed it – eight of them. But that’s not a single-day record, so the little baby boom can only be attributed to coincidence or, well, luck. No other area hospitals reported unusual numbers.
With a calm baby girl who’s already showing personality, parents Murphy and Reid Emery don’t think they could get much luckier. They wanted a sister for Dawson, 8, and Cole, 5, even using the traditional Chinese conception calendar in hopes of a daughter to round out the family.
As for the abundance of eights, they figure the superstition doesn’t hurt.
“We got lucky with a safe birth, and she’s so healthy,” Murphy said. “So far it’s living up to its expectations whether we believe in it or not.”
The couple, who own Carnegie Square Bistro, bought eight lottery tickets Friday but have yet to see whether the lucky number will translate into monetary wealth.
“We’ve been so busy I forgot to check if we’re winners,” Emery said.