weekend highlights

Saturday was mainly spent here at home. We went to market and bought fresh chicken and veggies. I cooked tinola for lunch because I wanted and needed to eat something nutritious. I had a plugged duct.

Again.

This time on my left boob. The first one was on the right breast a few months back. I think that was July.

Anyway, I woke up with tenderness and lumpy engorgement on my left breast last Friday morning. It was painful, but not as painful as the first time I got a plugged duct. I pumped as usual (30 minutes, thrice a day) and it got better but then it would go back. I managed to get through the whole of Friday and even got some sleep despite the discomfort. I worried about it progressing to mastitis though so I planned to stay home and tackle it the whole of Saturday. This duct needed to be unplugged!

I took a hot shower that morning then I applied a hot compress before pumping. I also massaged the area so I could encourage the milk to flow. I pumped and the lumps would get smaller but the plug was still there.

I managed to get a two-hour nap after lunch, which felt really good. It's been a while since I had that. After that, I pumped again.

Then, we left for Thomson Plaza. We had meryenda at Wang Cafe. We had mee rebus, kaya toast with soft boiled eggs, kopi and teh. Afterwards, we shopped for groceries at Fairprice Finest then went home.

Clockwise from top left: kopi, soft-boiled eggs, kaya toast, mee rebus and teh

I wanted to resolve the plugged duct situation before going to bed, because I seriously didn't want it to develop into mastitis. I took a hot shower again, massaged it with a large-toothed comb, applied hot compress before pumping then massaged it while I pumped. It didn't seem to get better this time so I inspected my nipple.

There it was, in it's white, pimply glory. A bleb. I was happy to find that bleb because then I knew what I had to do to unplug the duct.

I took a needle, sterilized it with alcohol and then pricked the damn blister. Thin foremilk oozed out of it immediately and then came comfort. Mission accomplished! I slept well that night.

We woke up to really fine weather on Sunday so I told my boys we'll be having a picnic at the park. I packed peanut butter and mango jellly sandwiches for me and ze hubby, filled a thermos with coffee and brought pear puree for Ziv. We went down and sat at one of the park's benches.

There weren't many people in the park, unlike during weekdays when it's filled with seniors exercising at the elderly workout area or doing tai chi. It was quiet and peaceful; perfect for an impromptu family picnic.

Then right after Ziv's morning nap, we made our way to Orchard to search for the perfect workout bra for moi. I needed a new one which will fit my lactating boobies. But before embarking on what turned out to be an epic quest, we filled our tummies at Food Republic, Wisma Atria. We had Korean food and dim sum! We then hung out at Starbucks since ze hubby wanted to use the voucher for free Christmas coffee.

Clockwise from top left: Chapchae and Kimbap (Korean sushi rolls); Dada and Ziv at Food Republic; yummy dimsum; chicken briyani; Ziv drinking his Starbucks (nah, it's empty); Dada and Ziv hanging out at Starbucks

After a hearty lunch, we headed to Paragon to check out Marks & Spencer. I thought of getting a workout bra from there since they usually carry big sizes, but turned out they had limited sizes and stock. From that branch, we walked to the Centrepoint branch. I still didn't find my size so I decided to take a look at Triumph at the department store. Still no luck.

I wanted to give up and just eat ice cream but ze hubby said we should check out Stadium at 313@Somerset. There I tried bras from adidas, Nike and Reebok. Fortunately, an adidas bra fit me so we purchased it right away. To celebrate, we headed to the food court to grab meryenda. We ended up eating chicken briyani!

After all that food trip, breaking in the workout bra is a must!