Quick questions about lactation prior to birth

[Spiritedwolf]

I feel I ought to know the answer to these, but just to reassure me...

I'm 26 weeks + 6 and the last few days I've had a little bit of clear fluid seep from my right breast. In some ways I'm reassured that they can produce something as I'm keen to breastfeed, but have been nervous about my ability to do it as family members have struggled to exclusively breastfeed for as long as they wanted to. So:

Is this colostrum?
Is it usual for one breast to produce it before the other?
Will there be plenty of colostrum for baby after birth if I'm producing it prior to the third trimester?
Is now the time to start with some kind of breast pads?

I can see that some women might find this all a bit inconvient, but its actually making me a bit excited that my body is really gearing up for this baby, and I've been feeling the baby's movements stronger over the last few days (was a bit surprised the first time I felt the baby move at one side of the bump then the other, I suppose baby was stretching or moving position) and feel really connected to the little one. I suspect its these bonding feelings that have resulted in the leakage!

I can do this thing, right?

Don't worry about not producing enough afterwards - in my first pg I could express colostrum from 12w, and all the way through pg2. DS is currently latched on merrily.

You'll produce it until after birth as milk production is started by the placenta detaching.

Leaking colostrum - or not - isn't an indication of how much milk you'll produce but not producing enough is unusual.
If you need to wear breast pads, then do.

All really good, normal stuff going on :)
Use pads if you need to, dont bother if you dont (they are only to protect your clothes)
Its fine for just one boob to leak, or both or neither. When you have your baby everything will kick into action.

Ps of course you can do it! Read lots of good info (le leche league/express yourself mums etc) so you know how it all works. Usually when people dont have enough supply its avoidable (things like not feeding frequently enough, using dummies, etc) but only makes sense if you know how it works.