Switching from evening (3-11) to day shift (7-3)... advice?

[jss1985, ASN, RN]

I'm a PCT who has been working evenings 3-11 for 5 years in psych. At my job, evening and night shifts both get paid 10% diff which equates to an extra $65 per week AFTER tax ($260/month).

I never had a reason to consider switching shifts until recently. My was unemployed for 6 months and had no choice but to take a CNA job working 4-12. This caused two problems:

1. Babysitting. We have a 2 year old and an older 18 yr old girl. Our 18 yr old, while a decent babysitter, still has a lot to learn when it comes to dealing with "terrible two's" if you know what I mean. And hiring a babysitter for $15-$20/hr x 8 hours x 3 days a week just isn't going to work financially.

2. No days off/quality hubby/wifey time. Because they put my wife's days off opposite of mine, so if I'm off tuesday she's off thursday. If I'm off this weekend, she's working this weekend and vice versa.

As much as I was tempted to go to night shift, I decided not to because I want a normal sleep schedule and I don't want to feel like a zombie doing it 5 days a week. So now I am starting day shift in a couple weeks and... I guess I'm a little nervous/anxious, part of me is hoping I made the right decision as well.

The reasons I never wanted to do days:

1. Waking up at 5am-5:30am to get there.

2. Losing $260 differential, although this could be made up with 2 overtime shifts.

3. Everyone "important" is there during the mornings.

On the up side... the shift does go by quick. It solves the childcare dilemma. And I'll get to have some quality time with wifey. Even if I'm working on a day that she is off, there's still enough time to go out and catch a movie or what you once I get off at 3pm. Besides, this is only for next 3 years anyway until I obtain my RN, then I can start doing 12's three days out of the week.

Perhaps my reasons stated above are things that one can "adapt" to. I guess I'm just looking for some clarification from everyone. Do you think I made the right choice? Would you have done the same in my shoes?