I have had this new shift for just over a month now. It hasn't gotten any easier. I can pull myself out of bed and get myself to work. Work actually goes by pretty quickly since I get off at 4pm now, but as soon as I get home it's like all my sleepy-ness catches up to me and I feel like I just hit a brick wall of exhaustion. I have been taking naps after work for a solid 20 - 30 minutes and that does the trick. It's like an instant rejuvenation and I can happily live out the rest of my days. If I do not take the nap, I am like a cranky little baby.
The heartache comes when I tell you that I feel guilty for taking naps. I feel like the dogs need my attention, I'm being a bad wife, a bad laundry doo-er, a bad maid, a bad friend and whatever else you can be bad at. I have felt this constant struggle since I started this new shift. I really need the nap to keep up my energy levels in order to do things. I know one answer is to get to bed earlier, but there are 2 problems with that.
1. I am a night owl. I would so much rather be awake during the night than the day.
2. Jared is also a night owl and doesn't get home from work until 7 or 7:30pm, then he works out, does some shhhtuff and usually is up all night long so late at night closer to 10pm is our usual bonding time. We'll go down to the hot tub, curl up and watch TV, eat dinner... whatevs. If I went to bed earlier those things I love wouldn't happen.
So there's my guilt-ridden spill. Do you wake up early? How do you handle the exhaustion? Do you take naps?