If you collected colostrum how much did you collect?

[horchatatresleches]

I’m just curious because I’m almost out of the syringes I bought on Amazon and not sure whether to buy more. I can fill the 1ml syringes in just a couple of minutes now with hand expression (I probably spend more time dealing with bubbles in the syringe than actually expressing!), and I’ve already got about 50ml stored. A lot of my NCT friends have had trouble with establishing feeding and their babies losing weight, so I’m thinking of continuing since it’s something I'm happy to do, it’s not harmful, and it might come in handy if my baby has feeding struggles in the first few days. How much colostrum did you collect before your baby was born, and did you end up using it or wishing you had more or less?

That's more than enough OP😊 Sounds like you have a great supply! Have you asked what are the storage requirements in your hospital? Do they have a freezer to keep the syringes in? I would freeze at home and bring about 10-20ml to hospital. Once it defrosts you will need to use it. When travelling it may start to defrost so you don't want to end up in a situation where it all has to be used and is potentially wasted. Baby might be a wonderful feeder and maybe you won't need much of it. The first few feeds are only a couple of mls total because baby's tummy is so small, holds about 5-7ml to begin with. Also you might not stay in hospital very long after so 20ml could cover a few feeds.

The hospital said they can only store 5 syringes or so in their freezer, and I have those bagged up separately and if we need more DH can come back home and bring more if needed. I'm really hoping to minimise stay in the hospital all being well because I'm such a homebird, and the hospital have said they won't discharge a baby who is still dependent on syringe or cup feeding. But then I'm not sure the what the realities between what the infant feeding team say they offer in advance on the hospital tour vs what actually happens when you're there are like.

With my last baby I expressed about 15ml and it is still in the freezer now. (She's 2.)

That sounds great OP, what gestation are you?

I'm 38+2 and haven't got any yet. I squeeze but nothing comes out, not even sure I'm doing it right.

I'm 39+1 and I started at 37 weeks. It's only been in the past four or five days I've been able to really easily express, and I started slowly. I found this video really useful, seeing it on an actual breast. For some reason I couldn't quite translate it to the knitted ones in most videos.

@horchatatreslechesim about the start collecting colostrum. Would you mind sending a link to the video please as I've only seen the ones with a knitted boob!