Pregnancy progress

So, I've passed the 30 week mark now and things are progressing nicely.

I've been having weekly progesterone shots since 17 weeks and these will continue until 37 weeks.

As well as the standard first three scans I've been having fortnightly cervix scans at 24,26,28 and 30 weeks. They've been happy throughout and today have told me I don't need any more cervix scans.

And in the past week we've also engaged our doula. She will attend the birth with us and provide support to us to hopefully help us achieve an intervention free, natural birth. We've appointed Julie and Kharis from Beautiful births doulas (http://www.beautifulbirthsdoulas.com) and whoever is on call will attend with us.

So all things are progressing nicely and hopefully we'll have a full term natural birth!

Muscoot Farm

Today we went to Muscoot Farm, a free farm that is a 35m drive upstate. Farms are not as plentiful in this area as they are in the UK. We went with a new friend, another Brit, and her little girl Elsie.

Here are some photos from our trip.

Sals pizzeria block party

Our favourite pizzeria threw a block party on Sunday to celebrate their 50th anniversary. We made a trip as wanted 50c a slice pizza. Unfortuanately the queues were huge and on a hot day we didn't feel like queuing. However we managed to get Ethan a hot dog and stopped for ice cream on the way home so all was not lost!

Greenburgh Nature Centre

Yesterday Ethan and I were, at short notice, at a loose end in the afternoon. Coupled with nap being over by 12 it looked like a long afternoon. So we decided to go on an adventure, somewhere new and headed to a local nature reserve. Here are some photos of the fun we had.

The turtle that freaked Ethan out (it was pretty big!)

Checking out the animals ( less scary than the turtle, no personal space violation!)

Selfie

Story time woodland walk 

The slide on the 5-12yo playground that he climbed straight to the top of and went down without second thought (whilst Mummy paniced!) 

Stone throwing provides endless entertainment 

And finally after an afternoon in the sun mummy was too tired and uninspired to cook so we went to the Diner for dinner.

Tipping

A great article in The Times today regarding the tipping culture in the US.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/columnists/article4165903.ece?shareToken=12735ba3bc32e4991a8727377e90910d

Apparently the link isn't working, here's some of the key points of article 

Big boy dog walk

I've finally reached the part of my pregnancy where things get a bit more complicated with Bruno. I've stopped carrying Ethan in his carrier which means no off leash wood walking for Bruno. However last week I had a brain wave, I could compromise, push Ethan to the woods in his stroller and then Ethan could walk the loop while Bruno runs riot.

Well the first trip was a success. Ethan loved his big boy walk, the whole trip took an hour meaning it will not be a daily walk but as a once a week thing with me will work out well.

Here are some photos of Ethan enjoying his walk.

Free cycling

Today I got my first road side freebie. In our area it's common place for people to leave at end of their driveways what they no longer want. So I picked up a pink motorized car for Ethan's friend Lucy. After overcoming the challenge of how to get it home with stroller, Ethan and Bruno I carried Ethan and put the car in the stroller. The next challenge will be whether the car ever makes it to Lucy as Ethan seems to like it!