Hello!

My little boy is a month old now, and he's wonderful, but he's unfortunately still in NICU and will be for another month or two. He was born at 26 4, thankfully perfectly healthy but just too small to be anywhere else just yet.

I'm having a real hard time with my milk supply. He's still too little to try to feed him directly (apparently they don't really master the suck/swallow/breathe thing until around 34 weeks, he'd be 31 now), so I pump for him. I really want to keep going until I can try to feed him directly.

Unfortunately I'm not producing anywhere near enough. I read posts here where people say they "only" produce 5oz... I'm in England so had to convert to ml. 1oz is around 30ml and I produce around 10ml from each boob on average. He's currently getting 16ml every two hours at NICU, and I pump every 2-3 hours and once or twice at night, so I'm not keeping up, and the bigger he gets the bigger the gap will be between what I can provide and what he needs.

Of course, I do all the recommended things - I drink water until I can't take anymore, I look at pictures of him when I pump, I take his blankets home for his smell. I've also been prescribed domeridone which is an anti-nausea medication with a side effect of increasing milk production, but we're still at 5-15ml per boob per pump.

Has anyone else with a very premature baby experienced this? I guess I'm wondering if it will get better when he's home or when he can feed directly from me. Did my boobs just need 3 more months to prepare?

My other question is related to pain when pumping - it really feels like razorblades are coming out of my nipples when the milk starts coming. It's sore enough that I check my milk and nipples for blood each time! My partner suggested that there might be an issue, the pain and the minimal flow might be related, which I hadn't thought of before. Hoping for insight from more experienced mamas, really!

I do have support from breastfeeding advisers at NICU and the wonderful nurses there, but they really just tell me I'm doing fine and not to worry, and say discomfort is normal. I'm sure when we get to the stage where we're building up to him coming home, they'll discuss my options for supplementing with formula.

tl;dr Anyone with a very premature baby had issues with milk supply staying low? Also, should I be concerned about extreme stinging when I pump?