Baby number four

For Eid this year, my wife and I made the decision not to go back to our home town as usual. This is after our obgyn advised us not to travel long distance because Linda could be due anytime now. Despite just being on her 36th week, the baby’s size is a little bit on the large side so our initial calculations might be a bit off. So we decided to err in the side of caution and heed the doctor’s advise. Of course our children were not about to miss their Eid celebration back home so we send them to tag along their aunts and uncles. As much as I’d like for all 5 of us to be together on Syawal morning, we thought they’d be much happier in Tanah Merah with their grandparent, cousins and relatives.

So for the first time in my 39 years on earth, I didn’t go home for Eid. How does it feel? Nothing much really. To be honest as I age, I become to dread the annual exodus and massive traffic jam along the highway and byways to and from our hometowns. I’m tired of plying the same road, seeing the same sight and doing the same exact thing. I don’t mind driving for a nice vacation to a brand new faraway place, seeing new sights, doing something different. Anything other than same old Tanah Merah and Pasir Mas. My wife might disagree but that’s how I feel.



Anyway back to the main story, on the morning of the 3rd day of Eid, my wife woke me up at 1:30AM telling me her water just broke. According to the schedule, Linda is only set for c-section later next week so this kind of took us by surprise. We rushed through Jalan Reko to KPJ Kajang, our designated hospital and checked in at the emergency department. I must have broken about half a dozen traffic laws along the way. Forgive me, it was a real emergency. After our obgyn were notified, we waited in the holding room for like an hour or two until her arrival. Between that time Linda’s contraction started to become more frequent as her opening expands from 3 cm to 5 cm. Thankfully the doctor arrived just before 4:00 AM and my wife were wheeled into the Operation Theater soon afterward.



As anxious as I was, there was nothing I could do but wait for the operation to be done. The procedure took nearly two hours and I fell asleep in the waiting room. A few minutes after 6:00AM, the nurses wheeled out our newborn baby and then half an hour later my wife safe and sound. Thankfully everything went really well, both the baby and his mother were safe and I am now a proud father of a 3.92 kilogram baby boy.

We spent the next 3 days at the hospital. The baby is feeding well and his digestive system working perfectly. Some of our closest relatives came to visit including my in laws and my mother. None of our friends came though but I don’t mind since it’s the first week of Eid and they should be understandably busy. I must say sleeping on the hospital sofa was not exactly desirable but it’s better than sleeping on the floor. We upgraded from a double-bedded room to a standard single room with extra cost of course. The food at the cafeteria downstairs were decent and fairly priced. I look forward to their excellent nasi lemak breakfast and chicken curry for lunch. There’s no other eateries open within one kilometer radius so I don’t exactly have any other choice. The hospital staff and nurse were thoroughly professional and very helpful. I would recommend KPJ Kajang if you’re living in the Kajang/Semenyih vicinity (and you can afford it).



By the third day we were ready to check out. Previously all my wife’s hospital bill were taken care of by her insurance provider. Since they changed to a new panel though, they have downgraded her benefits and we were mildly shocked with the final hospital bill in excess of 2,000 ringgit (Compumed, you suck). It took a while for us to came up with that amount of money but we did in the end thanks to generous family members. The bill shock aside, we were extremely grateful everything went well for both the baby and mother. For our latest and possibly last baby, it took us quite something to come up with his name. We didn’t have much trouble coming up with the previous three, especially the girls. In fact it’s much easier to come up with good girl names because there were so many to choose from. For boys however it’s a different ball game. Most of the name we found were either too common or not unique enough. It was not until 4 days after he was born that we finally agreed on a name for baby number four. World, meet Asif Yusuf.