freestyle vs avent

my personal view on the 2 breast pump that i have.

 

freestyle vs avent duo

1. freestyle more parts to wash and sterilise

2. freestyle must sit straight to pump. avent, i don't really have to sit straight and don't have to worry about bm leak out from funnel.

3. freestyle can't surf net while pumping cos must use hand to hold on to bottles unless use handsfree thingy. avent, i can use my thigh to hold the bottles while pumping and surf net without any handsfree thingy.

4. freestyle can't express out bm efficiently like avent

5. freestyle's motor is lighter. avent motor is more strong and heavier

 

if i have to describe the usage of both pump, avent is like a broadband surfing while freestyle is dial-up surfing. therefore, avent is the winner here.

last gai gai for my breast friend

today will be the last day that i'm bringing my pump to work. after today, i'm going to reduce my pump to twice a day. my supply had dropped very badly that i only left about 300ml a day. very sad to see my supply drop so badly. i'm not motivated to pump anymore. breast don't feel full at all after 8 hours. i think i will have to stop totally very soon. but, i think i had already did my best and i think my fbm will still be able to last about 1 month + before converting yu ze to total fm.

moo moo....

 

 

in early feb this year, i blog about how desperate i was to get a chest freezer to store breast milk. i thought my storage problem for breast milk will be solved with the chest freezer that we bought. i'm wrong.

my chest freezer is already full with breast milk liao. i started to store in my own fridge again and 1 layer of it is already full. hopefully, i don't have to start using father in law's fridge soon. currently, breast milk are stored at 3 places - babysitter's place, my chest freezer and my fridge.

i need my one and only loyal customer to increase his intake in milk or i will run into storage problem again soon.

new pump

my avent isis duo pump sort of die on me a few times. half way through my pump session, it will auto stop. i need to on and off the switch for it to work again. this happen about 5 times. today, i decided to send it in for servicing. i'm prepare to pay for servicing cos i lost my receipt and warranty card. i had search the whole house, i just couldn't find it.

when to the philips service centre at around 11.30am, took a queue number and waited for about 15 minutes. the customer service guy told me that i have to leave my pump behind for about a week. how can i survive without my pump for 1 week. i can't even survive without it for a day, let alone 1 week. i don't know why i just couldn't get my manual pump to work. i told him, i'm not leaving my pump behind for 1 week. just let me know if it can be service on the spot, if not i will live with my problem. he told me to wait while he send it off to see what the service man got to say.

we waited at the showroom and service centre for less than 1 hour then i saw my precious motor coming out. the customer service man call for me and told me that they have give me a new motor as replacement, free of charge. yeah!!!! he say since i lost my receipt, he will use the serial number on the motor as reference to get my purchase date. with the serial number, he told me that he will put my purchase date as end of march. i think i bought it end of may so i just leave it as it is. therefore, my set is actually cover with warranty till march 2010. after i got a brand new motor, i push my luck further to ask about the tubing. i told him the wire on the tubing seems to have become longer. he say he will check if he got new wire for it. end up, he give me a replacement for the tubing as well. hahah.... i got a new motor as well as a new tubing. i'm so so happy. its like getting 2 pump for the price of 1.

now that i'm using the new motor, i realise that my old one is actually very noisy. this new one is almost no sound kind. its so soft. from now till my set warranty is over, i'm going to get an exchange if i face any problem with it again. hopefully, this won't happen again. philips, you make my day.

chest freezer to the rescue

we finally bought a chest freezer to store breast milk today. i have been nagging darling about our bursting freezer. once or twice a week, we have to play musical chair with bottles and bottles of breast milk. we will transport breast milk from my place to fil's place then from there move to babysitter's place. this had go on for quite a while and we still manage to have some storage space. i had also manage to squeeze another 60 bottles into our own freezer before doing any move.

well, this is not a permanent solution for our storage problem. darling will hear me complaining about no space every 3 to 4 days. one day, darling realise that the tray in the freezer is bend due to the weight of the breast milk. thus, he decided to buy a chest freezer for the breast milk. i search the singapore motherhood forum for a second hand one and manage to see one on sale. however, i'm late. it had been reserved and pending for collection when i contact the seller.

i'm in need of the freezer so much that i call the company in the morning and get them to deliver in the evening. we paid $280 for it and it was delivered at 8pm. finally, my freezer is free from breast milk and i can start buying ice cream to eat.

gold milk

my freezer is almost bursting from bottles and bottles of breast milk. good thing is that i can always transport them to babysitter's place when its bursting or about to burst. if babysitter's freezer is bursting too then i can store at father in law's place which i don't think i will have the chance to use. 

darling always feels that there is a lot of breast milk in the freezer and ask me to give more to yu ze. just throw away if he can't finished. just give him more to see if he wants more. i will get upset whenever he said that. yesterday, i told him off. you think there is a lot of breast milk is it? once i stop expressing, these will only last yu ze 10 days. its only 10 days and not 10 months ok? its only then he keep quiet and say softly, it looks like a lot mah. sigh.... man hoh. arghhh....... maths not good is it? can't he just go and count the number of feeds each day and the number of bottles in there.

i know i do spend quite a lot of getting the plastic caps for the bottles but at least i get to recycle them. if i use milk bag isn't it going to cost more since we are freezing feed amount? i'm running out of bottles and need to source for more liao.

power but lazy pump

i'm having engorgement since day 3, didn't know that it can be so uncomfortable, hard, pain and sore. call up kk lactation consultant for advise. i was advise to pump every 3 hours even baby not with me. i have been doing it diligently but it still doesn't help. its so painful and sore. if i miss the timing, i will be worse. at the same time, i don't wish to increase the duration of each pump as i think it will cause my breast to be more sore and bleed. 

 

my supply had slowly increase from 20ml to 60 ml now. i so happy with the progress. we have been delivering express breast milk for yu ze everyday. hopefully, what we have send will be enough for him. 

 

i will latch him whenever i see him, hoping to stimulate more milk. i must say he is a power but lazy pump. he is able to soften my breast after every latch. hahah.... can't wait for him to come back.

breast pump

after a long search and wait, i finally got the avent iq isis duo breast pump yesterday. had been searching on different brands of breast pump and trying to get feedback on them. eventually still decided to get the avent breast pump even though its expensive. although meleda is very popular and almost all my friends are using it but what they got is the mini set, not what i wanted given if i get it. i would like to get the pis adv version which will cost around the same as the avent set.

since darling is the one paying for it, i show him both avent iq isis duo and meleda pis adv set during the takashimaya baby's fair in march. without much thinking, he said buy the avent set since we intend to get the milk bottle, steriliser from avent. at the fair, with the explaination from the sale person we decided to get the whole series of the avent iq which includes breast pump, steriliser and food warmer. maybe we are being con by the sale person into believing its the best products and set our mind for it. 

we didn't get it then cos its still very early for us to buy and also don't wish to have the warrenty start running then when we don't use. waiting patiently for all sort of sales to come and went round trying to compare prices. i had come to a conclusion. most places will have a 20% on the steriliser when there is a sale so no hurry in getting. food warmer, its already at a sale price now so the chance of getting it cheaper might not be there so no hurry as well. lastly, its the breast pump most expensive item among them. its at nett price at all places even when they have sale.

i guess my patient paid off. when we were at OG yesterday, i saw the 20% discount sign is up for avent products. so i got hold of one of the staff and get her to check if the discount apply to the breast pump too. the moment her answer is yes, i told her, can you confirm? i will want the set if there is a discount, if not i'm not buying. she bought the set to cashier to confirm the price. and yes, there is a discount. i told darling, we are not going to wait anymore. its very hard to get discount off the breast pump, better grab it now. without any hesitation, we paid for it at the cashier.

i'm so happy with the purchase, the savings on the breast pump can actually paid for the steriliser