Q1 2024 << REWIND <<
Trying to introduce a little quarterly report! Note: this one is a doozy, so if you're reading this as an email you might get cut off! Head over to substack to read the full post.
Welcome to the first installment of our quarterly R.E.W.I.N.D — a summary of the quarter prior, coupled with a short little list of the things I’ve been Recommending, Eating, Watching, Influenced and Inspired by, Navigating, and Dreaming of (get it??? R.E.W.I.N.D1??? It’s an acronym. GET IT???).
Having a baby under 1, I find I pay much more attention to the passing of time in regards to him (and oh, how quickly it passes), but often feel like my own little milestones are slipping by. I also think it’ll be nice to get to 2025 and be able to look back on everything I got into.
I started writing this in January, with the intention of this being a monthly thing but…well, if you haven’t caught on by now, not getting things done when I intend to is something that often happens. So for now, we have a quarterly2 thing!
Anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to for the last 3 months.
Q1 Breakdown
January
Starting with a brief summary of the first three months of 2024: I started January 1st in bed, with Devlin, drinking Champagne out of plastic cups and watching the ~local~ coverage of the ball drop3. We had planned a big New Years party (figured instead of getting a babysitter we’d make our friends come to us), but I ended up cancelling a few days before. My grandmother passed away on Christmas Eve, and I couldn’t get myself to 1) clean for guests and 2) entertain. It was the right call for sure.
I started January, as many do, ready to set some new good habits. I’d spend the past year growing, birthing, and raising a small human. While I had some good movement habits throughout my pregnancy and when my son (I’ll refer to him as his first initial, N, from time to time) was born, going back to work in November kind of threw me and my routine. So, I committed to getting more intentional movement in in January! I’m happy to report that I’m strength training five days a week, and averaging about 7.5k steps a day!
My son started day care in January, and that was an adjustment for us all. I don’t think any of us loved it off the bat, but we all quickly acclimated. Dropping him off in the morning forced me to get outside every day, rain or shine4. When I got back home, I had some time to myself to workout and make a nice breakfast before work. While November & December felt hectic in terms of balancing work, parenting, and life, January was the first time things felt more doable. I definitely think day care plays a huge part in that—even with Devlin not working when I went back to work, I still felt like I was in a bit of limbo before, trying to figure out a way to put my two feet fully in three different doors. I love our day care now, and while he’s still not always getting enough sleep during the day it’s clear it’s the best for all of us. But I really had to let go of some control5.
January ended with a trip to Slovenia, without Devlin or my son, for my Grandmother’s6 funeral. My kid doesn’t have a passport yet (we weren’t expecting to all need to travel internationally this soon!) so it made sense for me to go on this journey without them. It was fast—I flew out with my parents on a Thursday night and I was back in Brooklyn by Sunday. The funeral service was really beautiful and I felt so privileged to be there. I am grateful to have been able to bury my Grandma in a place she loved, surrounded by people she created a life with for the last few decades. It was the first time I was away from N overnight, let alone multiple overnights! That was tough—I missed him deeply, but I’m grateful to have a wonderful partner who really stepped up and absolutely thrived in the role of ‘solo parent’. Still nursing him, I found myself pumping7 in all kinds of wacky places8—thank goodness for my wearable pump.9
February
February kicked off without incident. We had a lot of fun continuing to introduce solid food to our kid, and after the first week I thought we were in for a quiet month.
N brought home a nasty cold from day care which hit me the worst (Devlin had it bad too). I was out of commission for an entire week, with symptoms ranging from ‘2 days of fever’ to ‘2 days in the bathroom’. It was gnarly. A week later, my company went through a round of layoffs. I’m safe, but after dealing with this stuff for 2 years, it definitely struck a bit of a chord and just added to some stress. The week after that, day care was closed for ‘mid-winter break’. My parents came down for a few days to hang with N, and Devlin took the lead parenting on those other days.
At the end of February, I had to travel once again, without much warning, to LA for a work trip. My trip in January prepared me to be away from home, and this time I decided to travel with that hard-earned milk. It was complicated—I snuck away to pump during my day-long meetings, had to managing cleaning everything from my hotel room, and became good friends with the folks at the front desk, grabbing my little cooler of milk from their freezer multiple times a day. I don’t think I’ll do that again, but because this was a work trip it felt like an important thing to do, even if on principle.
March
All in all, March was less-eventful. The weather got a bit nicer so there was more outdoor time—parks, restaurants, neighborhood walks, etc. Work picked up, and I started getting pretty serious about my routines. I got back to what I started in January, with my mornings of daycare drop-off, workout, breakfast, work. I got better at integrating little daily tasks into my day that center around cleaning, organizing, and overall just making life easier. No flights in March, another cold that missed me almost completely, more time outside, and more focus on routines and finding ways to make my life easier. Oh also, we saw Herbie Hancock in concert. WILDLY impressive. He’s still got it—jumping up and down on stage while playing keytar was a moment I’ll never forget.
All in all, a solid month and a solid quarter!
Q1 2024 REWIND
Recommending
Strength training on Peloton, specifically Rebecca Kennedy’s 5-day strength split. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this motivated to workout this consistently (especially for 5 days in one week???? what????)
Cleaning for 30 minutes a day. Usually I just get to the dishes, and that takes up most of the time, and I can’t say I do this every single day, but just setting this intention makes everything so much more manageable.
Putting my phone on Do Not Disturb
Eating
Chomps beef sticks (favorite snack right now)
Lots of protein overall
The bits of sourdough that don’t make it to my son’s plate
lots and lots of rice? I’m becoming a big rice girl.
My husband’s cooking
Watching
I finally got back into the Crown. It’s the show I watch while riding my Peloton.
I binged The Rookie, and then started watching Castle to get my Nathan Fillion fix when that was done. I’m still watching Castle.
My network shows are back! Right now, in addition to the new season of the Rookie, that’s Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19.
FINALLY started Abbott Elementary. Such a fun show — does the mockumentary thing so so well. I love the characters and find myself smiling while watching it. lol.
Curb is back! Great season. I’ve started back at Season 1 too, which absolutely stands up (I didn’t realize how poor the production value was in this first season, which almost adds to it all).
Influenced and Inspired by
I was heavily influenced by YouTube influencers to order AG1. After I ordered it I realized it’s not totally proven to be breastfeeding safe so I ordered a different greens powder specifically for pre/postnatal women (Perelel) I guess I am more regular and less bloated, but I still have to take my vitamins. Which was a big draw of AG1.
This video was circulating around a lot around International Women’s Day. It’s old, and I’ve seen it before, but now being a working mom, it resonated so much more. I’m inspired by Indra Nooyi, and so so so many other working moms that have come before me.
Navigating
not having enough time for everything
trying to stay organized!
keeping up with who I am outside of being a parent, while relishing in my new identity as a parent
Dreaming of
Spring and warmer weather!
Going to see the Cherry Blossoms at the Botanic Gardens
Traveling to some weddings this summer, without the baby!
Fun spring and summer Nuuly boxes
Thanks for reading, and see you next time! Also, if you have any acronym suggestions, I’m open to them!
I adapted this from someone I follow on instagram, @abetterpaige. Her acronym is a bit different (it’s a REPORT), but definitely want to give credit where credit is due!
At time of editing, I’m realizing how long this is! I might try to do this monthly after all (if I have enough to talk about, that is). I’ll see what April looks like, but if you’ve made it to the footnotes lmk what you think — big bad quarterly overview, or shorter monthly updates?
None of the streaming services we have let us watch any of the official ones, so it was just NY1 coverage at Times Square, where you could hear the performances and not see them 😂.
TBH, this is absolutely huge for me. When the world shut down four years ago, it very quickly became very clear to me that, without any reason to leave the house, I simply wouldn’t. There was a dark 4 weeks in March 2020 where I only sat in our backyard but wouldn’t actually go anywhere (another story for another time, but yes it was rooted in pretty crippling anxiety).
This is also very good for me. This is the biggest parenting lesson I learn over and over again, and having him in someone else’s care has been crucial to letting go.
What? I didn’t know you were Slovenian??? This always raises eyebrows. I’m not Slovenian, but my grandmother moved there and made it her home. She worked for the Brazilian embassy, and met her partner (Slovenian) while they were both stationed in Türkiye. The rest is history.
I made the call to pump and dump, which for those of you not close to lactating humans, just means I would pump to empty and maintain supply but then throw that milk down the sink. As much as I hated dumping that hard earned food down the drain, I also felt a massive relief each time I did, knowing I didn’t have to worry about storing, transporting, and keeping everything sterile. Was a massive help to what already felt like a massive mental load.
Locations include:
The lovely lactation pod at JFK that I found with the Mamava app.
the bathroom at our connecting flight in CDG
at my grandmother’s funeral (before the service — we got there early, as her family, to set up. In the time between that and when others arrived, I snuck away to the bathroom to pump)
At the restaurant after my grandma’s funeral (twice). From the bathroom stall and outside the restaurant
At least one car ride