Meet The First Baby of The New Decade!

Forget Father Time - meet baby Thyme.

Right as the ball dropped in Times Square on New Year's Eve, a newborn named Thyme Eva Rogers made her debut at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan and became the first baby of 2010, officials said.

"She just gushed out right at 12 on the nose," proud mom Marquita Fladger, 34, of Harlem, said as she recovered with fiancé, Michael Rogers, 37, by her side.

"I didn't think it was going to happen like that but it did," added the first-time mom. "It was exciting."

Fladger said New Year's was already a special holiday for the couple because they met exactly two years before at a swanky year-ending party at a lounge in Manhattan.

Now the holiday means more than ever for the pair, who were feted by hospital staffers with sparkling cider and will be treated to a lobster feast in their room.

"It's extra special," said Fladger, who does public relations for Christian Dior. "This is the best New Year's ever."

Dr. Cassandra Smith, who delivered the 6-pound, 14-ounce bundle of joy, said hospital staffers knew it was going to be a special birth when Fladger began pushing about 11:30 p.m.

Just as the clock was set to strike midnight, Smith instructed Fladger to try a big push - and the rest is history.

"She was just ready to come," said Smith, who said the room erupted with cheers and shouts of "Happy New Year!"

"All the nurses came in the room and we were all just screaming and yelling."

When it came to delivering the first baby of the year at other city hospitals, it was close but no cigar.

In Brooklyn, second-time mom Erica Batista, 28, welcomed 10-pound son Ryan Matthew Caro at New York Methodist Hospital at 12:12 a.m.

Batista, who is from Staten Island, had been on her way to a New Year's Eve party in Brooklyn with her husband, Mario Caro, 32, when she suddenly felt strong contractions and decided to rush to the hospital instead.

"When they took me in through the emergency entrance everybody was yelling, 'Don't push! This is going to be the baby of the year,'" said Batista.

"But I didn't have a choice. The pain was excruciating."

New York Hospital Queens clocked its first baby at 12:34a.m., when Anna Chen made her entrance at 8 pounds, 10 ounces.

Anna's pediatric nurse, Kristen Caruso - who herself was born on New Year's Day 33 years ago - said there is no better birthday to have, no matter what the time.

"Every year, I feel like everyone is partying for me," Caruso said.