Hi all- I have a 3.5 month old and work 12 hour shifts, 7a-7p. My schedule is every Thursday and Friday, and every other weekend Saturday & Sunday, with a 45 minute commute to work.

My baby goes to daycare on site from 7a-4:30pm, on Thursdays and Fridays when my in-laws who live 5 minutes away pick her up. When I get off work around 7:15 go to their house to pick her up and drive us home, we usually end up home at about 8:30.

Everyone talks so much about both routines AND early bedtimes, and I find myself having to choose either an 8:30 bedtime (really 9:00 by the time she eats and we read one story), OR I could try for a 7:00 bedtime, meaning that twice a week bedtime is in the car, and I just transfer to the crib to continue nighttime sleep when we get home?

I do have the option to just stay at my in-laws on Thursday nights, which I am highly considering since I also am having to get baby up and into the car seat at 6am to get to work, and I wake her up when we get there at 7- which is when she normally wakes anyways. But if I stay at my in-laws she could sleep until 6:50 and only have to wake up early early on Thursday mornings, and only have a late- bedtime Friday nights when I drive home. (Weekends she’s home with dad so she could go to bed before I get home, which would be sad but if it’s what she needs, we can do it!)

I am looking for another job with a shorter commute, but currently have an AMAZING on site day care that I can visit, and most other nursing jobs around here are rotating schedules (days & nights trading off) and are not reoccurring week to week so I wouldn’t be able to do daycare at all, which is not an option since DH (dear husband) works also.

We live about 30 minutes away from the nearest daycare and my husband would run into similar problems as me with his work schedule, but without the bonus of close relatives to pick up from daycare, and I love being on-site since I can go visit/nurse 2/3 times each day....

Just looking for an outside opinion- what do you guys think I should do!?!?