Baby Bottles

Baby bottles, when did they become so expensive... and complicated. For all of my kids we have used the AVENT brand of bottle. We started using the brand when feeding complications for Nia (loooong story, I might tell you about later) left us searching for a bottle that would work for her. Avent was our 5th bottle... and it worked, so we stuck with it. When Anara came along we stayed with the same brand. At the time we lived in the boonies. The closest store to our house was 45 minutes away and I couldn't imagine throwing in multiple excursions through the country side to the previous hellish experience of finding a bottle. So, the bottle wasn't cheep, but it was easy. Bottle, collar, nipple and done. By the time Cameron came along, the design had changed to bottle, ring, collar, nipple. If I hadn't bought a dozen of darn things on before I realized this, I would have searched out a new bottle. You see for me each little piece that is added seems to equate to dozens of extra headaches. Headaches when they drop into the garbage disposal... especially when no one realizes and then you have to re-buy the already over priced piece or be down an entire bottle because of it. Headaches when your digging through a drawer at 2 a.m. and hope you can get a bottle together before your newborn wakes up the whole house. Headaches when your holding your hungry baby while making a bottle only to realize everything has been washed and sterilized EXCEPT all of the rings. Headaches when your husband's very large hands find it challenging to put together little bottle pieces while listening to a baby crying and two other children telling him about the baby crying. Headaches when you forget about the little extra piece or it doesn't get in just right and dump milk all over your baby. I'm really not sure how people who use the bottles with 5 or a zillion pieces have any sanity left.

Umm, maybe you can tell that my love for the AVENT brand left when they added that little ring. They do have a new bottle (back down to the 3 normal pieces), and I'm sure it's great, I'm just not sure I want to use it. I was given a sample when I signed up for a registry at Buy Buy Baby. I found the nipple hard to get into the collar AND it's even more expensive than the 4 piece design. The first set of bottles I purchased for Nia were $3 a 12 pack (not AVENT). I am totally aware that was nearly 14 years ago and the economy has changed a great deal, but my eyes bug out a bit when I look through today's choices and see bottles like the mimijumi with a price tag of $14.99. Ouch. I think my kid would have to use that bottle til they were 5 if I paid that much for it. However, I'm sure there are good, cheeper options out there. I just haven't found them, not that I've looked around a ton.

Recently we picked up replacement nipples for the new born stage of our AVENT bottles for our coming little bundle. They run about $2.50 a nipple. I haven't opened them yet, so if I could find bottles for less than $2.50 a pop, I would be completely happy to return those and just pick up new bottles. Also, I managed to accidentally melt several of our larger bottles, so  even if I don't find a bottle for  less than the $2.50 price mark, the plan is to switch to a new bottle when the coming baby moves past the 4 oz stage.

Any bottle recommendations out there?

Update:
So, at some point after Ember began taking around 6 ounces at a feeding we tried him on a few different bottles. What we found was...
1. Em is a very picky little baby. He made it really clear he really wasn't happy about having any other bottle than the AVENT is was accustomed to.
2. Simplier bottles = more spit up. Em has sensitive tummy and the bottles we tried with less pieces really enhanced this issue. I'm sure I don't need to explain more here.
3. If I had a do over with bottles this go around (and with Cameron) I think I would start out with playtex nursers that use the plastic bags. Anytime I have been able to pump milk, I have put into milk storage bags which are easily used in this type of bottle. This was also the only bottle we tried that didn't cause more tummy issues.