I need help setting a a schedule for a new graveyard shift job??

Question

I'm going to be starting a 11pm-7am job at a hotel next Friday. My days will be Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun. The real challenge is that I have two girls, 5 and 3 that haven't started school yet. My husband works from 6:30 am until 6 pm Monday-Thursday. Most days he will be home to take care of the girls, and I figure I'll sleep from about 8am-4pm. What should I do about sleep on Mondays? What about my days off? I'm trying to plan it, so I can spend as much time as possible with my husband and daughters, but get a decent amount of sleep, so I don't "burn out". Anybody have any advice? Thanks!

Answer 1

I have a 2 1/2 year-old and started working graveyards in Oct., but I work all different days. I work 7pm-3am now, but when I worked 10pm-6am I would get a couple of hours of sleep before my son would wake up and when he took his nap I took a nap, and when my husband got home from work I would try to get a couple more hours of sleep. Is there someone that can watch your girls for you on monday for a few hours? Maybe a high school kid to come when they get out of school and stay until your husband gets home so you can sleep? At least you would be there just in case anything happened, but you can still get your rest.

Answer 2

That is going to be rough,my husband worked graveyard for 17 yrs and we only had 1 child so I can't imagine how you are going to do it but he came home at 6:30am,slept till 2:00pm,spent time with us until 6:30pm,took a nap til 9:30 went to work a little after 10:00pm. It was hard on days off for him because the body doesn't adjust to change in hours but in days and he wanted to spend time with us so he didn't keep the schedule.Maybe you can get someone to watch the girls for a few hours on Mondays andThursdays.