Overnights & Babies

[poppy79]

i potentially have a great new opportunity but have a 21 month old and one on the way. The catch is I will have to go back to overnights. How do you cope w/ overnights & a newborn?

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

You HAVE to sleep and childcare is a must. Just like if you worked days.

[SaltySarcasticSally, LPN, RN]

^^^ Yes, please do not try to avoid childcare and sacrifice your sleep. I get it, it's expensive, I pay $1200/month for 3 days a week, more than my mortgage. I work days but I would the same if I worked nights. My husband did the work at night, stay up with the kids during the day thing for a year. It destroyed that man's thyroid, he gained weight, and made him depressed. Took him a year to get back to his regular self after getting off nights. The expense stinks but it's not forever and your sleep is worth it.

[RainMom]

My youngest was 6 months old when I started my first nursing job, 8 hr nocs. Since I didn't have to go in until 2300, I was able to feed & rock him to sleep usually before I left. My husband took him to a sitter's & got the older kids to school before I got home & then I slept until school was out. It really wasn't too bad. When I went to 12 hrs shifts about 18 months later, I did 2 nocs on & 2-3 nocs off, so when I worked, it seemed like sometimes I didn't see the family at all between shifts. But I had more days off.