Not sure about expressing before bub is born but I had to express for ds2 when he was born as he was in neo nates. You won't get colostrum out with a pump and if you did I doubt it would even go down into the bottle as it's so thick and syrupy. IMO all that unsettled behavior and continuous feeding was what brought on the milk for me. I had a very difficult labour. Lost lots if blood and they thought I would have a difficult time with my milk but ds2 soon sorted that out lol. I think your plan of hand expressing and storing in a syringe is spot on. That's how I had to do it in neo nates