night shift nurses with young children

KeepItRealRN, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2014

It's been a while since I've had "small" kids, but both my wife and I worked 12hr night shifts until the last year. We didn't use day care and worked opposite days. I worked .9 and she worked .6. That only gave us 2 days off a week as a family but it worked out nice and saved a ton of money. I enjoyed my days as Mr. Mom when my wife was working. The rules went like this:

1. The person who didn't work that day was on duty for parenting, meal preparation, and general chores around the house. The person who was working only had the responsibility to work.

2. If one person worked nights and the other works the following night, the one who worked nights the night before was on deck at 3pm and the person who worked that night took a nap and prepared to work.

I hope that your Hubby helps out on the nights you work. When you work 12 hour nights all you have time for is to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, work, and repeat. If you try to do more you will be very sleep deprived, dangerous and might even put your job in jeopardy for not being sharp, or worse yet nodding off on the job.

One nice thing about working nights is that it afforded us the opportunity to have a "family" supper pretty much every evening.

RunBabyRN · Mar 16, 2014

I'm likely starting a night position (2300-0730) once I'm licensed. Our plan is:

Get off work, take son to school (he starts at 0845), or run errands and hubby takes son to school.

I go home and nap.

Hubby, who works at home, picks son up, wakes me up. Spend time together, get stuff done for the day, make dinner.

Take short nap when son goes to bed.

Head to gym, shower there

Get to work.

Right now I'm precepting on the PM shift on this unit, so I am gone 1500-2330, and on those days, I'm lucky if I have time to pick up my son, who gets out of school at 1345, because I need to leave at 1400 to get there on time and be ready for hand off. My hubby lets me sleep in when he can when I'm there for PMs, so he gets our son ready and takes him to school. We make the other days count.

KeepItRealRN, BSN, RN · Mar 17, 2014

I go home and nap.

I've worked night shift for over 20 years and if all you do is "nap" then you are likely going to be sleep deprived and really hate your job. When you work night shift it is imperative to find a period of time in the day to actually "sleep". I mean at a bare minimum 6 solid hours of uninterrupted sleep. More is better. You don't hear people who work regular day jobs refer to sleeping at night as "napping".

cassie77775 · Mar 17, 2014

It works really well for us but I didn't start until my youngest started full time prek. The husband brings the kids to school(they start at 730), I gethome around 745 and sleep the 3, kids get home at 3 and we do homework, cook dinner and eat around 445 and I leave for work around 545-6. It works well and I see my kids more that I did working day shift.

RunBabyRN · Mar 17, 2014

I've worked night shift for over 20 years and if all you do is "nap" then you are likely going to be sleep deprived and really hate your job. When you work night shift it is imperative to find a period of time in the day to actually "sleep". I mean at a bare minimum 6 solid hours of uninterrupted sleep. More is better. You don't hear people who work regular day jobs refer to sleeping at night as "napping".

It would he a good 6-7 hours. I suppose I called it nap because of the time of day, but this would be my "night". I sleep well in our room during the day, with blackout curtains and little noise. Works well! :)

scifispam · Mar 18, 2014

I have a 1.5 yr old...I work 7-7 night shift. I actually see my son MORE on night shift than I would on day shift. I love it!

Meese.C · Mar 19, 2014

I actually am a mom of a 1 year old and i just started nights after being on days for my entire 3 year nursing career. it works for me because when i get home, baby girl goes to daycare so mommy can sleep and i pick her up when i wake up. i get home at 8am and she goes to daycare at 9am. i am able to have the house quietly to myself and i sleep for about 5-6 hours. i pick her up around 5pm so we can spend a couple hours together before i go to work the second night. your schedule seems like the kids will be away enough to offer you some good rest through the day. you can do it! :)

Meese.C · Mar 19, 2014

I have a 1.5 yr old...I work 7-7 night shift. I actually see my son MORE on night shift than I would on day shift. I love it!

and i totally agree with you on seeing baby more often while working night shift. on day shift, baby girl was sleep when mommy left the house in the morning, and sleep when mommy got home at night!

now, i get to spend time with her before and after work!

friendlyjane · Mar 19, 2014

I am not a nurse yet but know most likely when I do become an RN, many job openings for new nurses are for night shift. What do y'all do when your school aged children are home from school during the summer? My kids would be in high school, middle school, and elementary by that time. Just curious.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Mar 19, 2014

I worked nights the entire time my kids were small. Then I realized that I still had to work them when they were teens as the mice pay while that cats away! Mine are just under 11 months apart so they wanted to do the same things.

When they were smaller and out of school for summer. I never worked 2 in a row. The days I worked...we would have a "sleepover" movie marathon. I would blow up the king sized air mattress....darken the room...pop popcorn the old fashioned way. I made up PBJ sandwiches that I cut with a cookie cutter in different shapes. We would order Pizza delivered and "veg" while I dozed in the chair. Not having to go back out that night enabled me to semi-nap in the chair.

If I had a high schooler, a middle schooler and a elementary schooler. I would pay the high schooler to baby sit and make it clear to the others NO FIGHTING! and the high schooler is the "sitter".

NightNurseRN13 · Mar 19, 2014

I don't see my kids much unless I have two days off in a row. I mean I see them, but I'm a walking zombie. I work mostly 8 hour shifts though so I work more than 3 days a week. It works though because that way I don't have to pay for a babysitter on weekends or during the summer.