I've been using one in hospital for newborn DS2 who is in special care, but now I've come home I've collected one I'm entitled to by health insurance from a pharmacy and unfortunately there was only one which was open which had one in stock and it's nothing like the modern ones I've been using in hospital, it's like some kind of relic from the 90s. Actually I literally think it might be from the actual 90s.
It only has three power settings and they are all massively more powerful than anything I've been using so far (two different types). Is this OK for colostrum or is it going to break my nipples off? I'm worried I'm going to end up so sore I can't feed the baby properly.
Secondly, it has a dial to change the interval between the "sucks" - I noticed that the hospital ones seem to have a short phase at the start where they go faster and then switch to a slower setting - I assume that's beneficial somehow but is there a guide to what's optimal to do? I'm hardly getting anything at the moment which I know is normal with colostrum but it makes me feel like I shouldn't "waste" any pumping session as I've been told just to do 10 minutes each side every 3 hours.
All of the instructions are in German and I'm too tired and emotional to contemplate reading them. We've somehow managed to work out how to set it up but can't work out why there are two lids for the overflow/air exchange bottle, one of which DH broke almost immediately by tightening it (luckily, the one which didn't work anyway!)
Although he did amuse me by earnestly stirring the breast pump soup as we don't have a steriliser but these parts are not safe for the microwave and don't even mention a dishwasher so he was worried that letting it touch the sides of the saucepan might cause it to melt!
Lastly - is it any use simply hand expressing and using a syringe or dropper to put the milk straight from the nipple itself into a bottle? I'm too tired to research how to do stuff properly but it irritates me that 80% of what I pump gets stuck around the workings of the pump and doesn't end up anywhere near the baby. I am sure I have a calpol syringe around, somewhere. The only issue seeming to be that the colostrum hardens into a crust almost instantly and is then really hard to store. I don't want to go against what I've been advised though if the stimulation of the pump is going to be important for supply.