Hi, I have an umbelical hernia as well. Not sure if I spelled it right, but my family doctor said that it's not usually caused by pregnancy - but I did notice mine after my second child was born. I did see a surgeon who said that mine was about the size of a dime and would not hurt me but it can get worse over time and get larger over years. They can sometimes do a laproscopic surgery through your belly button but if it's worse they have to make a small incision and sometimes when they are larger they have to put this mesh material in and sew it up. My dad also had the same type of hernia near his belly button and did have surgery and a few years later had to get it redone. I think he probably didn't take time to recover properly. I asked the surgeon about lifting and he said I'm fine - but I don't totally believe him about that - I told him that I have two kids around 30 pounds and at the time I was lifting both of them in and out of the car, in and out of strollers...etc. He said that I just had to be careful after the surgery that one of them didnt jump on me when I was playing with them. I'm putting off the surgery for a while - after two c-sections 15 months apart, I wanted to wait for a while. My youngest is now 2 1/2 and I suppose I should get it the hernia taken care of before it gets worse.
What can happen down theh road is that it gets larger, and part of your intestines bulge out through it and then get trapped and later on it causes gange green in the part that is trapped. Also, it's not as easy on your body to have surgery as you get older.
My husband actualy had an umbelical hernia when he was a child as well and he had the surgery and has never had a problem since. I'd say, definately talk to a surgeon. I can feel a popping, like something squishes through - my family doctor said that that might be just in the head - I felt like kicking him when he said that because it literaly does feel once in a great while - like if I have a bad cold and I keep coughing and sneezing like I feel a squishing and hear a squishing sound near my belly button. It's so gross, but that's how I knew something was wrong and he felt around my belly button and said, that I did have a hernia and the surgeon said I did have one but it's small. Sorry to babble, but I just wanted to let you know that it is something to take care of but it's not life threatening, but you don't want to let it go because you don't want a huge gap like my dad did that took two times to fix.