Data gathered by me over the first year of my son's life. I didn't manage to track every session, but I captured the vast majority.

Visualization was made with R / ggplot

My wife has breastfed 3 kids for a year each. It is truly amazing what you have done for your child and as a stranger I appreciate your commitment and sacrifice.

you gotta post on Monday

what about total length per day?

That's cool!

Is the raw data available?

Haa the number of sessions decreased or you just have a schedule now?

Aw, thank you! I appreciate the sentiment.

Oh, you're right re: Monday! I didn't notice that in the rules... But mods haven't removed this post, right?

I have a different chart for total minutes spent breastfeeding per day; I can share it later when I am back on my computer (currently on my phone after a middle of the night wakeup :))

It is not, since it's data I gathered myself and I haven't published this project in a public repository or anything. I suppose I could consider doing that.

I never put him on a schedule; I've generally always followed his lead with respect to how often he wants for feed. This was possible since I was off work the first 7.5 months, and even after that I have mostly worked from home so I could keep nursing as needed/desired.

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That little sucker finally got his time down

HOLY SMOKES! What amazing dedication! Any thoughts of using pumps vs direct feeding? I suppose the embrace is part of the joy of being a mom...?

So, in the first few months I did pump once a night just to get some extra milk for freezing and so my husband could give him the occasional bottle. And then once I went back to work when my son was around 7.5 months I pumped more frequently, basically whenever my work schedule meant I couldn't accommodate my son's nursing rhythm.

But I think any nursing mother would tell you pumping is basically the worst of all feeding options. It is much more time intensive than nursing (need time to set up pump + actually pump, then time to feed baby, then time to clean pumping parts for the next time) but also still puts a lot of the primary feeding pressure on the person producing the milk (unlike with formula, where anyone can prepare baby's food and then give it to them). So I tried to avoid it as much as possible!

Makes sense!

Any ideas why nighttime feeding takes longer than day feeding in the second half of the year?

BTW: I'm sharing this with my SO who is currently breastfeeding our third child (2 weeks old). Thanks!

I think certain habits/tendencies solidified once we both really got breastfeeding down. He started to get both more efficient and more distracted at the breast during daytime feeds, so those sessions would go faster. But at night the breast would help him fall and stay asleep, so I would tend to let him stay on a bit longer in the hope that that would lead to more sleep overall for all of us.

And congrats on the fresh baby :)

Damn 1 hour feeding time my kid would be snacking while I was snoring. Poor women. God bless you all.

"..tend to let him stay on a bit longer in the hope that that would lead to more sleep overall for all of us."
I hope it worked! In my experience the whole house sleeps better once the smallest family member gets past 1 year!

Thanks for the meticulous data gathering!

The 4 60 minute + sessions sound really unpleasant

Looks about right, I.e. passes the smell test.