Poppet >
Now, listen to me! Your supply sounds like it is exactly where it ought to be and remember I have done this twice! I had ds3 at 32 weeks, I lost a lot of blood at the time and my obs then refused a transfusion for me. My haemogloblin levels at that time were 5.5
This time I got a transfusion and my haemoglobin levels were 8.8 which is not great but better than they were on ds3.
On ds3, the first time I pumped I got 80 ml. This was with an Avent hand pump.
On dd, with my Avent duo ( hospital grade) the first time I pumped I got 2 ml. I was horrified. I thought something had gone very wrong and was blaming the donor blood.
However I did keep pumping and now am up to 800ml or so. It was only when another Mum in the NICU who had had her baby at 29 weeks said that her midwife friend had told her that we make as much milk as our prem babies are likely to need. A 27 or 28 weeker is not going to need as much milk as a 32 weeker and I'm sure Willow is probably taking less than a third of your 600ml?
Do you have to pump for 40 minutes? I am asking because if double pumping I pump for around 11 minutes and if single pumping I pump for 22 minutes. If you are emptying your breasts each time are are basically pumping nothing for 20 minutes after emptying, I wonder whether you are actually overdoing it because it is sooooooo time consuming! I basically pump each breast till it appears that nothing more is coming out, then do a bit of breast compression which is pretty much just grabbing the breast at the back near the base and pushing it forward into the pump. This always causes more milk to come out. When it appears empty again, then I am done and I don't keep pumping.
I also find that when I have put Sylvie-Rose to the breast, that although she can't latch on and can't actually do much, that I always find that I pump more afterwards.
Do feel free to ignore me if it goes against advice you have been given!
On the other thing, I do feel cheated at not being pregnant any more, even though it was the toughest of my five pregnancies. I only got to wear my Tiffany-Rose dress once, to SIL's wedding. I was supposed to get to wear it for going out to restaurants! When I go into the hospital to see my baby, there are loads of pregnant women ( it is a maternity hospital!) and I keep thinking "That should still be me" And I look at my baby and think that at 32 weeks corrected, she ought to be so much bigger but that she has been cheated of that extra growth you only get in the womb.
It is hard but we have to keep telling ourselvies "This too shall pass" and look forward to the day our little girls come home!