Update:

Thanks so much to everyone who replied. Pumping has actually gone really well for me. I hated the magnesium, but it didn’t make me all that sick. The fluid restrictions that went with it were frustrating because I knew I needed to drink lots of water to make milk!

The hospital gave me lots of support. My nurse helped me start hand expressing colostrum while I was still in the recovery room with my legs numb! We nearly filled up a 1mL syringe. And once I was back in the regular room, the lactation consultant came by. They gave me goals for pumping and hand expressing: 8 times per day.

In the first 24 hours, I got way more by hand expressing than pumping. But I think the nipple stimulation from pumping helped a lot.

I’m about 3 days past my c-section and I’m getting about 40-60 mL per pumping session. With almost 400mL total for the day. So I’m pretty happy with that.

One thing I’ve learned is that the nurses and hospital lactation consultants know the hospital Medela Symphony pumps very well. But they don’t know much at all about the Spectra, despite it being such a popular pump. I’m going to look at the you tube videos tomorrow and maybe schedule a consult with my old OB’s outpatient consultant if I need help.

Also pumping in a hospital, especially for the NICU is a much, much more sterile process than the typical guidelines. We only leave milk at room temp for 1 hour. They only keep it in the fridge for 48 hours and to store frozen milk for 6 months, it needs to be in a chest freezer.

They also have me use disposable bottles for each pumping session, rather than washing and reusing bottles. So I ordered the Spectra to Medela adaptors so I can use the Medela-size disposable bottles from the hospital with my Spectra pump. Hopefully that works well.

I’m 26 weeks and just diagnosed yesterday with pre-eclampsia and HELLPS syndrome. I’m getting steroids and pretty stable. Baby will mostly likely be delivered via C-section on Saturday.

Any moms of very early premies have advice on pumping? The neonatologist told us they really want to give babies breast milk for the immunities and such. But they warned me that it can take longer for milk to come in so early. They also have donor milk in a screened milk bank.

I have my spectra S1 pump at home, but I’ll probably use the hospital pump first. I’m thinking, though, that I’ll have someone bring the Spectra by so I can have the lactation consultant check the fit on the flanges and maybe give me tips on settings. Anyone with a NICU baby share your story? Or how often you pumped?