Mrs Tai went for her routine checkup at UMMC on Thursday. I was able to follow Mrs Tai this time around. It was an ‘important’ one as we had to decide on the ‘planned delivery‘. We have decided to go with a Caesarian section. Baby will officially come into this world on the 21st of May but subject to terms and conditions… heh heh… But seriously, there are some conditions to be met first. One very crucial condition is that the ventilator (or was it the incubator) must be available otherwise the C-section will have to be postponed.

It seems we cannot ‘reserve’ the ventilators. Operations-wise, I guess I can understand. They should now have any ventilators lying idle in the hospital since it is a very useful and expensive machine that can save lives!

Other than that, the baby’s growing normally. I’m excited and panicking. Still seems like there’s so much to do… *sigh*

Oh ya… I’ve started my new job. So far so good. People at the new office seems nice and friendly. Only thing… It takes almost one bl00dy hour to get to work and to get home. How can people stand working in KL! *sigh*

Ya… That’s one reason why I have not been updating my blog. Still trying to adjust my timing, etc…

My new Proton Saga has hit 1000km and went for its first check-up and service. So far, I’m quite happy with the new Saga (also known as BLM). Noy that many complaints as compared to my old car — the Proton Waja. If you’re a very practical person and thinks a car is nothing more than an invention that helps you to get from one place to another, then this is a value-for-money car!

Will write a ‘review’ of this car in another week or so. I think I have had enough of time with it to be able to write something fair about it.

The second check-up was for myself. It has been more than 6 years since I had a full medical check-up done. The last time I did it, it was a pre-employment check. I also did a basic blood test about 2 years back before I got married — to ensure blood compatibility, etc…

I wanted to do a check of my physical well-being. So I went to this quite famous clinic and told them I wanted to do a medical examination. They looked at me puzzled. They asked what type of examination do I want to do… I explained that its been a while since I had a medical examination done and I just wanted to know that I’m ‘healthy’. They looked at me like I’m asking something that is out of this world… I guess not many people come in to do this. So I just told them its probably something people do when they get a new job. Then it looked like the light-bulb finally lit up. They exclaimed — pre-employment examination and asked which company I plan to join. *sigh* I told them that it’s for myself but somehow, I don’t think they believed me.

I had to go to different floors to have the different tests done. And without fail, each time I would get asked which company I plan to join… Hmmm…

All this got me thinking… These days, so many people are so concerned about their health. We worry about cholesterol. We worry about high-blood pressure. We worry about being diabetic. Besides that, isn’t there anything else that helps measure how healthy we are? I mean what about heartbeat (I mean is it beating too fast, too slow)? Or blood clots? The eyes? Ears? Nose? We keep hearing public service announcements that we should do cancer detection tests, etc… But what kind of tests are these? It seems that all these have to be ’specific’. If you want to test for lung cancer, then you have to request for it. Else it is not done.

I just wish there was some kind of test like what is done with cars — first 1000km, they change the oil, etc… People know what tests and servicing needs to be done. But not with our body. It seems there’s no specific test. We’ve developed so much and perhaps have made things ever more confusing and complicated for ourselves. All I wanted to was for a professional to check my health and tell me I’m ok. But not that easy…

I was also told that a full battery of tests could cost like at least rm500!!!

There’s just so many things to do and so little time… I just wish there’s like 48 hours in a day…

The baby is due end of this month. We still have quite a number of things to do and prepare like (in no particular order):

1. Pack the bags - hospital admission, hospital stay and when baby is out of hospital

2. Paint the room Just completed at 1130hrs

3. Clean refrigerator (or maybe we should just get a new one since we’re going to move to our new house by end of the year anyway)

4. Baby’s car seat (need to do more research into this — seems like there are so many types that it’s gotten to a point where I got confused as to what is what — serious! there’s the stroller, stroller-and-car-seat-in-one, stroller that allows lying down and seated, etc)

5. Steriliser? Or just use tablets? Or use boiling water? Seems that plastic milk bottles may release Bisphenol A or BPA which can cause chronic toxicity. Over the weekend, we bought 2 glass milk bottles — ya, we managed to find them.

6. Wash baby clothes, napkins, etc… We are using some hand-me-downs from relatives and friends. So have to wash them first as some have been stored for months (or I was told, even years!).

7. Clean up room. Currently we have lots of books lying around in our room (have to read up on how to be good parents, etc) and there’s a bit of dust now. Will probably need to store them in plastic containers so it will be easier to clean.

8. Baby cot… Hmmm… What kind of mattress? Spring? Latex? I think we’re kind of decided on this — coconut fiber. I think its coconut anyway.

9. Diapers… Errr… Do we stock up now? What size? How much will we need? *sigh*

10. Baby grooming set - nail clippers, etc… I just found out that you can’t use the normal nail clippers for the baby!

…The list just goes on and on…