Expressing for NICU babies

[time2deal]

Can anyone give me some advice or reassurance about how to express for premmies?

My boy is only 24 hours old, arriving at 33 weeks so no chance of trying to breastfeed just yet. He is starting to suck, but not coordinated enough yet.

So I'm trying to hand express from a standing start, as my body wasn't ready. I've tried every 3 hours today and just getting so little colostrum. Max was 2ml in one hour, but tonight I spent two hours to get little over 1ml.

Is that about right?! Will it pick up tomorrow?? The nurses seem OK with it, but I think they are just being encouraging.

OP, everything feels so HUGE now. Each little thing that occurs seems like a mountain to climb, I know. {{{hug}}}
Dd2 was born in march with a serious heart condition. she couldn't feed, had unstable blood sugar and spent 10 days in the NICU.
At 3 months she underwent open heart surgery. Those first 3 months lasted YEARS!
She was cannulated multiple times, had an ng tube, underwent multiple blood draws even though she is impossible to bleed, had chest infections... and that was all before the actual surgery, which as a parent was horrendous to watch.
BUT, you must remember that these little people are FIGHTERS!
From my point of view, she's 6 months now, and it's like a distant dream! A friend told me that it's all just a blip in time, and I know now what she means!
Once you're home all of this will become far away so fast you'll be amazed.
And in the mean time, you WILL find it in you to stand by and watch, because that's what parents do.
chin up chuck. xxxx

I had my DC at 33 weeks. I think the best thing to establish expressing is to pump 3 hourly round the clock as though you are feeding DS. I also started with just a couple of tiny drops but within a few days I was filling 2 bottles at a time and by the time my DC came home 3 weeks later I had a freezer full of EBM which was rather handy.

Thanks for the stories and support. It's right that each day feels like a year. We look back at something... and then realise it was that morning!

expressing has got much easier, as you all said. I'm keeping to a two hour schedule but have tons of milk each time so I might move back to 3 hourly. I need to arrange my setup at home to make sure I can get up, be warm and relaxed as quick as possible.

He's doing OK. Back under blue lights which means we can't hold him for a bit. Seems a little distressed this morning - any advice on soothing techniques when you can only access via the hand holes on the side of the incubator?

By the way I can pump by the baby. They will set up a privacy screen which I might do later.

I put a hand in on top of her head a lot when she was under lights and talked to her in a soothing voice. It must be unnerving to be touched when you are stripped off and blindfolded! We also both slept with a small toy and left that in her incubator so it smelled of us when we were not there.

That's great news about the milk.

Just lay your hands on him. Pressure is really reassuring. He will be able to smell you too. and lots of talking. He will have been able to hear you in it erosion so will be familiar with your voice.

in utero.

Make sure you freeze all your extra milk. Comes in very handy when you get home so someone else can do the night feeds.