Ch-ch-ch- changes

I've had my swing shift (5pm - 1am) for over a year now. It worked out ok when the kids were in preschool and Kindergarten, but now that they're all in full day I've started to grow less fond of it. During the day I sit at home all by myself, then as soon as they get home from school I have time to say Hi and ask them how their day was before I get in the car for work. I barely see them. When I get home from work at 2am of course the entire house is asleep. I discussed the idea of switching over to a day shift with Ti and was excited to make the move, but every shift that came up had me scheduled to work Sundays during church... so I never signed up for any of them. I waited and waited and thought that I was doomed to this swing shift forever LOL. One night I went in to work and seen a grave shift up for bid.  I've worked grave before and barely survived. Didn't think it was for me. But I looked at it again and couldn't help the interest and curiosity that crept in my mind. 11pm-7am with Saturday & Sunday off. I wanted weekends off so bad. Hmmmm... If I started at 11pm I could actually have dinner with my family and even put the boys to bed before work. And if I got off at 7am, that would put me home at around 8am - just in time to send the boys off to school. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense to sign up for it. It took a little convincing for Ti. I think just the word "grave" made him a little uncertain about the change. I worked 9pm-5am before and it was brutal! But that was when Siope was still in preschool and so I never was able to get consecutive hours of sleep. I was confident that this time around would be different. We finally decided that I would sign up for it. If it didn't work, then I could always go back to a swing shift.

I've since completed my first week of grave and am going on week 2. Can I tell you how much I love it?! I know there are pros and cons to each shift, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons for me with this schedule. When I explained what my new schedule was going to be to the kids I was surprised at the reaction from them. They memorize my routine from swing and on Mondays they would come home and jump all over me cause they knew it was my day off. I told them that I was starting a new shift and I would be going to work while they were sleeping and come back in the morning when they were waking up. Mote jumped so high and hugged me so tight.

The other night we went out and had dinner at Chili's. It was freak'n awesome that I got to go out and have dinner with my kids during the week! Each night we do homework and have dinner together. I'm able to give them a bath and put them to bed before I get ready for work. When I come home in the morning they're already awake... usually brushing their teeth and soon as they hear the front door open, they run down the stairs to greet me.

Surprisingly my body has been doing ok adjusting to the time difference. It didn't do so good when I worked 9-5. And I'm not sure if I'm doing better because I went in to it this time expecting the worst. I've been ok during my shifts... a couple yawns here and there and Ti has bought me some 5hr energy drinks, but for the most part I've been fine. Last week I never got more than 4hours of sleep at home though. I would sleep either 4 or 3hrs each day. My body just wasn't accustomed to sleeping at this time of day. Today however I got 6 hours! Which is good enough for me!! I was shooting for 6 or 7, so I'll take this 6 that I got :) I have very little to complain about this shift. So far so good!