Today may be a big day for OSFO but it’s a really big day for me. One of the two best days of my life— other best day being the day Teen Spirit was born.

Big day. Big day. My heart soars with memories of that day ten years ago. TEN YEARS AGO? Hard to believe.

She was a tiny 6 pounds, 12 ounces. Only 19 inches long — she was robust with dark eyes, dark hair. So, so precious.

I pressed her to my breast. Mine—she’s mine. I felt so lucky. She started to breastfeed within an hour of her birth in the recovery room. I was impressed. She impressed me even then.

Up in my room at Lenox Hill, I felt so blessed. She was the most beautiful baby in the entire world and she was mine.

I wanted her with me at all times. That first day we stayed together until I could stay awake no more. Then a nurse brought her to the nursery. It was a quiet day. Peaceful. The world outside wasn’t there. It was just the world in that room. Quiet. Soothing. Hepcat and me. My parents were there. My sister.

There were hours when I was alone her. Hepcat went home to be with Teen Spirit, who was too afraid to come that first afternoon.

"I’ll come tomorrow," Teen Spirit said. "Tomorrow."

He was terrified about this change in his world. He’d been excited during the pregnancy and very attentive to me. "Don’t forget your glass of milk, mom," he’d say.

But as the day got closer, he was nervous. What would this all mean?

I couldn’t walk after the C-section, so after resting I asked a nurse to bring my baby to me. I never felt less alone. That first night in the hospital. I was with my precious. So proud to have her, so pleased that she was mine.

The next day Teen Spirt came. He was only five-years-old. My sister picked him up at the Children’s House, a Montessori School in Park Slope. He was painting at an easel.

"I haven’t finished my painting yet. I’m not ready to go," he told Diaper Diva. She walked around the block.

Finally, he was ready to see this new creature who was going to change his life he could just tell. He didn’t know what to expect. Teen Spirit bolted into the hospital room. He looked at OSFO. "She looks like a mouse."

Then he made a bee-line for the other hospital bed and enjoyed riding up and down. Up and down. 

Relief. He seemed covered in it. We were a family of four now. A tiny, tiny baby girl. A much relieved boy who would still have a ways to go before he truly accepted his sister’s place in the family. Hepcat, me. The beginning of an adventure. 

We didn’t have a clue what we were doing.