The Torah says Jokheved "hid him three months." The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (2:2) does the math.
"And the woman conceived and bare a son at the end of six months; and she saw him to be a child of steadfastness, and hid him three months, which made the number nine."
Six months of pregnancy, three months of hiding. Total: nine. A full-term baby's count — arrived at by a shortcut that confused every Egyptian spy on the block.
Why does this matter? Because Pharaoh's enforcers were watching Hebrew households, waiting for due dates. They kept calendars. A woman who announced a pregnancy in Nisan was expected to deliver in Tevet — and any Hebrew boy born to her was marked for the river. But Jokheved's baby came three months early. By the time the informants started counting, the baby was already born and already hidden. By the time they came to verify, the crib was empty of a "newborn" — because the child inside was now three months old.
The Targum calls the infant bar kayyama — "a child of steadfastness" or "of steadfast life." This is a technical rabbinic term for a baby who will survive, who is viable. Jokheved sees in her premature son not fragility but firmness. She sees a soul that will hold.
The midrash is making a wider point. When a people is hunted, the Holy One accelerates the timelines. Pregnancies compress. Redeemers arrive before their due dates. The universe's clock does not run on Pharaoh's schedule.
Beloved, sometimes the very thing that made you early was what saved you.