Flip Flopper

When you work the night shift, one of the big decisions is whether to stay on the night schedule on non-work days or to flip back to a day schedule. People do one or the other for various reasons; I choose to flip back to a day schedule (did I say choose? I meant am forced) by my family. As much as I'd like to sleep the day away, when my two year old gets up at 6am I am the one who is responsible for him (does this mean I don't let him run around the house for a little while while I lie in bed trying to sleep for just 5 more minutes? No). I do know of night shifters who manage to stay on a night schedule even though they have kids, but there is usually some other party available for childcare- a spouse, school... in my house, on weekdays anyhow, it's just me. Sure, my husband is home on the weekends, but just try sleeping when there is a baby crying off and on, a toddler running around shrieking, and the sporadic venture into the bedroom to retrieve just one more thing. At night, everybody sleeps. Well, not the baby so much, but that's another blog post entirely.

Different people have their methods, but mine is this: on days off, I get up early, I go to bed early(ish). On the first day I work, I get up as late as possible, which might be 9am if my husband is home or more typically 7am if it's just me. Commence toddler-exhausting activity. When my kids nap at noon, so do I- I try to get at least 2 hours in. This is not always possible. Once I get up, I get ready for for work & go. The following days I do sleep once I get home and get up around 7 hours later, except that after the last night in a row I usually try to get up around noon so I can try to get stuff done, which means that by 9pm I'm ready to pass out and... Voila! Back on day schedule.

Honestly, sometimes I think that if I had my choice I would spend all of my off time sleeping. Or at least most of it, with a few hours of waking time to work on whatever crafty project I had going. In some ways, I'm glad my kids force me to get up and get some sunlight in my life, even the heavily cloud-filtered sunlight we get here in the NW. There is something about waking early and having the whole day to accomplish, even if all that actually gets accomplished is feeding yourself and maybe cursory hygiene. Being a flip flopper isn't so bad now, is it?