Great question. I expressed for DD from 37(? trying to remember?) weeks onwards. I wish I'd started earlier as it took me a while to get the hang of hand expressing. I also wish I'd tried the pump cos everyone told me it wouldn't work, but I reckon my boobs love the pump lol - so I should have tried it even once just to see what happened. With my expressing I did it in consultation with obs & LC. Obs was the one who made me wait till later, but in retrospect I was getting so little, and no increase in BH, so it really would have been fine earlier. I went in with 30mlfrozen and as Melbel said, had to keep it well protected. I expressed in syringes then put them into little Decor salad dressing 30ml tubs (BPA free - avail at Safeway). We made sure each "batch" was quite small cos bubs won't be able to take much in a sitting.

Similarly to you, neither of my babies attached properly prior to milk coming in (flat nipples). DD was very keen to feed, but was a disaster without nipple shields (which we couldn't use with colostrum), so I hand expressed all her colostrum. She also went into SCN for blood sugars (me GD+ insulin), and stayed for 2 days. The only only ONLY thing that got her through without top-ups was the expressed colostrum. She was born on the Fri arvo and by Sat night I was hand expressing 2hrly around the clock (we'd used all the expressed colostrum to stabilise her blood sugars). It was hard work (hence wish I'd started expressing earlier). She never went through a really unsettled/screaming stage, but as our paed said, she was actually becoming quite sleepy on the very low volumes (by the Sunday I was only getting .1ml each express). We made it through by a whisker. My fabulous paed backed us up all the way in our efforts to avoid any formula, even with SCN paging him at 3am to suggest she HAD to have FF grrrr.

Interestingly, DD has continued to be an excellent feeder, i just had such trouble with the flat nipples in the colostrum phase. My milk came in a smidge earlier with the expressing which was great, cos I had a C-S plus GD both of which can delay milk coming in. Oh and yes she was full-term (38+5, and a good weight 8lb6). The other thing to remember is to make sure it's really clearly labelled, dated, and your name so there's no potential issues there. We actually both dated, named AND numbered, so I think it was something like 10 batches numbered 1 (oldest) through to 10. You don't want some middie declaring that they think it's too old or something ridiculous.

All the best with it!! Aren't flat nipples just a total PITA!