Night Shift & 2 Children

K., I completely agree with Nicole. I've been doing nights (11p-7a) 5 days a week (in a row) since my daughter was 3 months old. Granted, the first year was pretty easy considering she slept a lot, so I was able to sleep during those times. All I can say is you do what works best for you and your family, definitely make sure your husband is on board to do WHATEVER you need him to do (i.e. chores, bath time, etc.), and sleep every chance you get! Still to this day, I could sleep all day long (now that my daughter's in daycare so I CAN sleep), but I still take an hour nap every night before I get ready for work! :) Good luck to you!

K.,

I have worked every shidt that you can think of. My advice is to sleep whenever you get a chance. If you have the opportunity to take a nap jump at the chance. Also look for recipes online for the slow cooker. That will be your new best friend. Also it might work for you but it killed me to try to go back to normal on your days off. The change will be hard to get used to and trying to plan an outing will be hell. Good luck and take advantage of your husband. In order for it to work it has to be an equal team effort. I hope this helps and hope you can figure it out.

N.

P.S. Dont worry about what anyone else thinks do what works for you and your family.

I've been working the overnight shift since my daughter was four months old and she'll be two in October. I won't lie to you, the hours really stink, but it sure beats the 9p-6a Mon-Fri while my husband works 8a-5p with rotating off days. It's nice to be here when she wakes up and we have our morning routine before I take her to school. I come home and sleep until 3:30p and then pick her up. When my husband gets home, it's his turn! His routine is to take her outside to play as well as bath time. Since her bedtime is my shower time, he also bathes her and puts her to sleep. My husband is extremely considerate of my shift and lets me nap if I need to. Dinners tend to be erratic since we feed her dinner at 5pm and I eat dinner at work. Lean Cuisine rocks! LOL We make sure we have quality dinner time on the weekends. I'm not sure how easy it would be to work this shift doing two on and two off though. I do go back to normal hours on the weekend - my hardest day is Saturday since there isn't any school and hubby works. I'm a zombie by the time he gets home!!! By bedtime, I've been up for 30+ hours! Thankfully, that's my night to put her to bed, so I take a cat nap with her and he cooks dinner. I honestly can't wait till I can get off this shift since it's REALLY hard for anyone NOT working this shift to understand the concept of it...especially my parents. I can't keep up with the days of the week either - I go to work and it's one day, I get off work 9 hours later and it's the next day! Next thing ya know, I'm missing birthdays, holidays, anniversaries and appointments!!! Keep your calendar on your fridge and X off the days as you go! Or...maybe it's just the fact that I hit "41" last week....they say the mind is the first thing to go! LOL My advice is to do some light clean up while the kids are eating breakfast - it's amazing what I get done in those 15-20 minutes. Throw a load of laundry in on your way out the door at night and set the auto-timer on the dishwasher. Save the cleaning for the days off and don't be a fanatic about it - GET YOUR SLEEP! Nobody cares about a messy house...trust me, they'd rather have a happy Mom! One other thing, sleep with your door closed or you'll have every telemarketer and vacuum salesman waking you up during your critical sleep hours! Best of luck to you....take it from someone who's there...it's not easy, but it's worth it!

I used to do this and am preparing to do so again. It gets very exhausting, but in the end it can be worth it. Just make sure on your days off you are able to spend time with the kids. If your days off are in the week, catch up on some sleep while the kids are at school.

When I got divorced from the girls Dad I worked from 3:00PM until 3:30AM five and six days a week. I would get home from work. Take a shower and go to sleep by 4:30. At six I would be up with the kids. On my days off the girls would go to one of their Grandmothers or Aunts and I would sleep from the time it was dark until daylight. There is no good way to handle nights. It's hard on your system and your family. Your plan sounds like a pretty good one to me. Good Luck.

Although your plan sounds great, you will have to see what works for you and your body once you get into this routine. I worked a 7:00pm - 7:00am night shift for a time when my oldest was 2 years old and then again when I was pregnant with my 2nd son. Well....I was so ready to drop some days at 7:20am by the time I got home, that I had to set my son up with cartoons and breakfast near me as I rested my eyes for about 30 - 40 minutes. Some days, I had the energy and it worked. The 2 days on and 2 days off might make this a bit easier for you. I had more days in a row, so by day 3 or 4 ...it was tough. Let the cleaning go and REST! Some times it is hard to fall asleep as soon as you'd like or plan, so do what works. Still haven't found that real balance...and I am on days now. Good luck!