Overnight call: the good, the bad, & the ugly

Dr. D is currently on a rotation that has him working mostly nights this month. It has been, in a word, challenging. I'd like to share the good, the bad, and the ugly with you all from our experiences, but being the eternal optimist that I am, I'm going to save the good for last and end on a high note.

The sleep schedule.  

We are both pretty exhausted. D is living the life of a vampire. As much as the middle school version of me wished she could be dating Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it is not as sexy or as awesome as I thought it would be. I still have to function in the land of the living, so our paths cross for a couple hours in the morning (as in, we sleep next to each other during that time) and then again for a few hours before D goes back in to work. And Jdog is getting twice the sleep he usually does (at night with me, and then he naps again with D when he comes home), so he's like a groggy dog zombie pretty much all the time. It's zombies and vampires up in this joint, and it ain't pretty.

No, seriously. The sleep schedule blows.

Post-call days! 

If I were only allowed to give one piece of advice to couples who are new to overnight call schedules, it would be this: make the most of your post-call days. Date each other. Go on adventures. Explore what is likely to be a new city for you both. Fight that urge to stay in bed all day... you won't regret it, I promise. All I know for certain is that it's how we are staying sane this month.

Care to share any of your good/bad/uglies about residency (or any other life transition, for that matter)?