Cuddling with the Oberitto

It's been awhile since I could cuddle with the dogs ever since I had Mara. Yesterday, Wedge took care of Mara while I pitter-pattered aboot. Anyways, I finally got to cuddle with Obi one on one, something that I use to do all the time pre-Mara. It was nice, since it was still cool in the house, his little body warmed me up nicely. And he had a nice smell about him, not too clean and not too dirty. I missed cuddling with little Obi, and he did too, I kept moving around and probably squished him a few times but he didn't mind. He was pretty stubborn with staying next to me. Usually, I can tell when he's pleased with me because at bed time he would always sleep on my side of the bed, at the floor. When I woke up in the middle of the night , he was sleeping right under me where I would stepped on his little paw when I got out of bed, but he didn't move until I went out to the living room (cause Mara was fussy and woke up and had to be rocked back to bed). I just ended up sleeping on the couch in the living room with Mara and Obi stayed with us at the foot of the couch.

My breastpump experience

I had bought the Ameda Purely Yours breastpump because it was slightly less than Medela's Pump in Style. My sister had the Medela's Pump in Style, however I can never trust what my sister says because she tends to just buy whatever she touches and raves its the best thing on earth without giving something else a chance.

Anyways, after using it for 6 months exclusive, it gets the job done, of course. My main concern was comfort and after pumping, you get use to it just like breastfeeding. Its hard to figure out what is good and comfortable when all breastpumps cost so much money. After talking with another person that shares the pump room with me at work, she told me her experience with Medela since she had both the Ameda and her friend lent her the Medela. She had the same complaints I did about Ameda and raved about the Medela. So I decided to ask my sister to borrow her pump to compare. My sister is also incredibly dirty...so I only took the motor part of the Medela and bought all new parts for it.

Ameda Purely Your's
What comes with the breastpump:
Breastpump
Tubes
Cooler with 3 ice packs
4 - 4oz bottles
Tote style bag
25MM Flanges
Link to Ameda Purely Your's Breastpump

Pros:
Milk never gets in the tube
Pumps directly to standard size bottles
Had 2 knobs to help you control the suction and pump cycle(to mimic baby's eating habits)
The breastpump piece has 2 standard size bottle holders for when you need to place it down without spilling it. (I've spilled a few times when I didn't use the placeholder)
Easy to clean

Cons:
Makes a weird beep with each pump cycle - noisy
Takes a little longer to express as much milk as the Medela's pump in style (Takes me 10 minutes more to express as much milk with the Medela)
More parts to put together
One side would be stronger in suction that the other

Medela Pump In Style
What comes with the breastpump:
Breastpump
Backpack
Tubes
4 - 5oz bottles
Cooler with ice packs
24MM Flanges
Link to Medela's Pump in Style

Pros:
Quiet
Pumps to bottles
Pumps really fast with letdown option

Cons:
Flanges are harder to clean
Seems like Milk/Water can get in tubes and hard to get out.
Smaller breastpump, so you can remove from pack and put it in another bag if you want to. (I had to with my sister's...she had milk all over her bag so I just took out the motor and put it in a prettier bag.)

My baby bottle reviews

The only time I started using baby bottles was when I was putting Mara in daycare. I had started her on a bottle here and there with her daddy, Wedge, so that she wouldn't be resistant to bottles. The bottles I got from my baby shower were Dr. Browns, Avent wide mouth bottles, and The First Years Breastflow bottles. I later bought some Playtex Drop In System bottles with liners because they have a pumping system I tried out which I ended up not liking at all. All my milk would leak when I stored it in the fridge and I hate wasting anything I pumped.

Dr. Browns - Reduce colic/gas was their main marketing strategy. I didn't like them. Mara did end up getting real gassy, but I don't think it was primarily because of bottle feeding. I had to switch strategies feeding her and that helped a lot with her gas. (I did the 10 mins on one side, 10 on the other and that seemed to be giving her a lot of gas because she seemed to be getting a lot of the foremilk which I later found out is more gassier. Since I produced so much I just let her feed on one side until she was done and that eliminated most of her gas problems.) The Dr. Brown bottles had too many pieces to put together and was a pain to clean everyday. Also, they always leaked for me, and some eventually just cracked and leaked all over our bottle warmer. We were not happy with these bottles and it was the reason why I didn't really pump into bottles. These are standard size bottles and fit my Ameda Purely Your's breastpump, but with all the leaking and cracking I gave up on them.

Avent - I liked these bottles but was disappointed they didn't fit directly with my breastpump. They warmed up nicely, held up to heat and no leaks. Mara seemed to like to feed from these as well.

The First Years Breastflow - I never used this but my husband did and he didn't like it. Most of milk would go into a 2nd "staging" area of the nipple (to simulate breastfeeding) or whatever and so we couldn't really gauge how much she was drinking. Mara also didn't like feeding from it.

Playtex Drop In systems - I had major problems with these just leaking at the screw part. No matter what I did, it just leaked if it was slightly tipped, maybe it is better for formula, maybe breastmilk is thinner and I just had issues with it. I bought it because I was thinking I could pump into these, store and drop in a bottle and not clean so much bottles after work. Well...I ended up cleaning my clothes, the bags I transported the milk in, my car, as well as the coolers I stored the milk in.
Now that I am considering supplementing with formula, I may give these Playtex another go and see if I like it.
**Update - These work well with formula, I never had any leaks but you can't really fill up more than 8 ozs on the large size.