Sure, only six weeks have been true "night shifts" - 8pm-9am, six nights per week. But the rest have still been pretty miserable: either 4pm-2am or noon-midnight (but thankfully only 5 nights per week). Still not much better, in my opinion. The hardest was probably the noon-midnight weeks because the kids never got to see him. Also, it really seems like Garrett's immune system decides not to work when he's on nights, because he always gets sick, which makes it even harder! This last week he has been battling the stomach flu while working 13 hour shifts (you really can't take sick days when you are working nights because no one can cover for you).
Also, it seems like when he is on days, he gets scheduled to work an overnight shift during the weekend! This means he has to stay up late on Friday night so that he can sleep most of Saturday, so that he can work all night Saturday night, then he comes home Sunday around 9 or 10am, sleeps for a little bit, but not too much, because he wants to be able to sleep Sunday night so he can go back to work Monday morning.
I am so ready to put the last few months behind us. It's been really hard on everyone. "They" say that second year is the hardest for radiology residency, and we are definitely experiencing that! But April is looking promising... he just switched weekends with someone and so now he has EVERY weekend free in April (well, starting when he gets home tomorrow morning sometime). That's exciting... because our yard is looking pretty sad right now.
I'm ready to start eating dinner together as a family again. I'm ready to hang out with him in the evenings instead of being alone every night! I'm ready to go out with my girlfriends while Garrett is home with the kids. I'm ready to go to bed at the same time. I'll get to start making my bed every day again (I haven't been able to since he's been sleeping during the day!). I will be able to text him during the day without worrying that I will wake him up. Now the girls will be able to play as loudly as they want (well, louder than they have been!). And now, hopefully Garrett's immune system will get back on track and he'll be back to normal too.
I hope it doesn't seem like I'm complaining too much... just trying to document what our lives have looked like the last 6 months. I'm so thankful that Olivia has been so good because I don't think I would have survived being all alone with a difficult baby. I'm also thankful that I have such a hardworking husband. He is really dedicated and, from what I hear, he is also very good at what he does.
It has been a long six months and I'm ready to move on.... for the next 11 weeks, anyway. He starts nights again in July.
1 comment:
Boo, that schedule does suck! I would not be able to maintain that, and I don't think I'd handle it as the wife, either. Also, doesn't it seem ironic that a Dr goes to work sick to help people get better? They really need to work on that system!
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