I was going to write a post that was all sunshine and roses about how she is now 3 months old and where does the time go yadda yadda, but it seems like the time got all saved up for days like today where minutes seemed liked hours.
For the last couple of days it's been really hard to settle her down for a nap and she always seems to want to be on the breast, but half the time she just plays there. I called my sister in a right state today and she asked if she was drooling a lot, and if so, the problem might be teething. I had to admit that the drool factor had definitely risen lately, to the point that I was considering putting a bib on her in an attempt to keep her clothes dry.
If this is her teething, Joe and I are in for a long year. She was completely bi-polar today screaming and babbling happily in turn. We tried to take her out in her stroller tonight because we were both a bit too tired to really want to carry her (and it's tough to fit her into the sling Joe uses with her snowsuit on) but we needed the air. She screamed the entire time in there. In the end I had to sling her up to get us home without completely shattering our nerves.
Also today, she was very clingy with me. Every time I left her with Joe for even the shortest time, she would start fussing, then the inevitable screaming. In the end we had to dose her with baby tempra and 2 ounces of formula to get her to calm down and sleep. Of course with all that in her, she'll sleep for hours now.

It is pretty exciting that she's 3 months now though. She babbles a lot now. I was sitting in the mall yesterday and she loved watching the people around us and was talking to them as they all passed. She's holding her head up enough that I tried her in the Bumbo seat. That seemed to be a success. She's also starting to reach for things and bat them around.
The most exciting thing is she seems to have a favourite toy and song. She loves talking to her Baby Clutch Cube and it can generally hold her attention for a few minutes. She also loves the song, Roly Poly Up Up Up (sung to the tune of Frere Jaques) that I learned from the library story time. I'm not sure if she just likes the fact that I swing her high up then low down with the song, but she laughs and the second time I sing it in a row, she starts smiling right away.

For pictures this time, we have week 12 and week 13 as well as the first time in the bumbo and putting up the christmas tree with dad! Exciting times!

Well, the winter weather didn't stop Zoë and I yesterday. It was a bit rough though. Because I wanted to do some heavy duty grocery shopping while out, I decided to pop her into her stroller instead of carrying her in her sling. (I did carry the sling with us - just in case) She was actually ok about it for the most part, which is unusual. And she was certainly warmer than I was since she had on her wool jacket, inside her cuddle bag and covered by two blankets. In fact, she complained loudly if I didn't uncover her when we were inside stores and was completely calm when we were outside.
For once, she wasn't what was giving me a headache. It was the stroller. It's a 10 yr old stroller that was handed down to me from my brother. It's in pretty good condition and I had no probems with it up until now. But let me tell you, pushing that sucker through the ice, snow and slush was hell. If I had had my choice (and the money to go with it) I would have gotten a stroller with tires that were meant to take on the winter. As it was, when the stroller wasn't skidding on the ice, it was getting hung up on the snow.
On the way home, I decided to put her into her sling because I thought she might want to eat. That made matters even worse. Since my old winter boots exploded last winter, I don't have a good pair of boots. I was in my runners and terrified I was going to slip while carrying her. I eventually had to put her back into the stroller for my peace of mind!
This will not deter us though! I can put up with the stroller if it means getting out of the house regularly, although I reserve the right to continue to bitch about it all winter. And this just gives me a good reason to buy new boots!

And here she is at 11 weeks plus one more close up in her Godzilla T-shirt.

Today Zoë and I went to the library baby story time for the first time. I was really glad to get out of the house, but I have to say the timing of it could be better. It starts at 10am which is just about the time she gets sleepy after being up for two or three hours. A couple of the other moms there said they also had that problem. She's also still a bit young to fully appreciate it, but the other parents there are nice. I will try and make it a regular outing for the two of us.

Last week's doctor's appointment went as well as could be expected. The needles were a bit traumatic for everyone concerned but since they managed to do them while I was breastfeeding her, I think she forgot about it almost immediately. Joe and I still remain scarred though.
She weighed in at 9lb 9oz and was 23 1/2" long. No wonder she is starting to grow out of some of her sleepers. We also had to start buying the next size up in diapers. She had been wearing the newborn size up until earlier this week but they were definitely getting small on her. Thank goodness the cloth diapers we are using at home don't have such a small size range. The ones that aren't 'one size fits all' mostly go up to about a 15lb limit, so I have a bit of time yet until I have to buy more of those.

That's it for now, so I leave you with week 9 and 10 as well as a bonus close up. (in week 9 the sleeper she is a size 3-6mos which explains why it is so huge on her!)







(thanks to Stephanie for the last one!)

I don't know why I haven't posted in over a week, I guess things just get away from me so easily these days.
It was her 2 month birthday on Friday. It feels like so much longer (in a good way). I can barely remember our life before her. Of course that could be the tiredness talking. She has changed a lot in the two months. She has most decidedly grown out of the newborn sized clothes that we have and is starting to fill out the 0-3month clothes. She's holding her head up consistently (it still flops when she's tired though) and she will occassionally grace us with a smile. She has started to babble and she may or may not have reached out for things on purpose. I think her eyesight is getting better as well. She seems to notice us when we are further away. And when we take her out these days she is much more apt to stay awake and look around. She really enjoyed Dufferin Mall and Home Depot last week!

And of course there was Halloween on Wednesday. We weren't going to do anything with her this year even though Joe and I love Halloween. But when Joe was out buying candies, he saw some costumes and had to get one for her. She wasn't too impressed, and slept through the whole thing.


Next year we will go all out though.

The other thing that seems to have gotten away from Joe and I are taking the weekly pictures. We missed week 6 and the week 8 one is just by chance and not on the blanket. (we were at the one month birthday banquet of her cousin)






Today is her two month check up. She gets her first round of vaccinations today. Wish us luck!

Before I go on to anything else, last night she smiled, on purpose, at me for the first time. She did the same for her Dad this morning. We just can't stop staring at her now, waiting for her to do it again!

Went back to the lactation consultant for a weight check this week. She is growing steadily now. She gained an average of 23gr a day for the week. As of Wednesday she weighs 8lb 6 oz.
What's even more exciting for me is that the last two days we haven't needed the ounce of formula at night to settle her. We are actually trying to get her into a better schedule. Up 'til now, she had been going to sleep somewhere between 2 and 4am, and getting up between 8 and 10am for a feed then knocking off for another couple of hours. This has been a bit tough on us, so these last couple of days I've been trying to get her settled earlier. I find that if I take her into the bedroom and feed her lying down, she goes to sleep faster, so I've been doing that starting at around 11pm. I think it's working. The two nights, she's fallen asleep before 2 am. Not much before, but still. She still sleeps a lot in the mornings, but all her naps seem to have moved up by a couple of hours. And she's a lot less fussy when we try and get her to sleep. I think when we were letting her stay up so late, she was getting over tired and over stimulated so it took a long time to calm her down.

Because of the cooler weather we have been occasionally getting, I am finally able to get her into some of the knitted things she has! She looks exceptionally cute in the hat Mel made for her!



Oh, and I wanted to mention the two very strange encounters I've had recently when we have been out for our walks. The first happened on election day. I was at my voting station staring up at the large flight of stairs I had to go up with the stroller when a very nice elderly woman came up to me and offered to watch her while I went inside to vote. Now, I like to think the best of people, but even I wouldn't leave my child with a total random stranger. Did she really think that I would agree? She seemed mildly miffed when I refused her kind offer.
The other encounter was much more bizarre. Vaguely mortifying and hilarious at the same time. I was walking with the kid around 4pm across College street in the stroller when she started to cry. She had been making some hungry cues right before so I put on the sling and popped her into it to try and get her to start feeding. No matter what I did she kept screaming. She was screaming so frantically that I could see the passersby checking me out to make sure I wasn't murdering her or something. After a little while of this, I realize that an elderly chinese woman (what is it with the elderly women?) was speaking to me. After trying to tell her that I don't speak chinese, she started trying to help me get the baby to feed. I mean, she was right in there trying to push my nipple into the screaming kid's mouth. I was actually too shocked to do anything. This is one side effect of breastfeeding in public that no one warned me about!

I'm trying to get into a regular schedule here which would allow me to post at least a couple of times a week, but it's been a bit difficult to figure out. The main problem is that any down time I have, I feel guilty if I use it for anything not house cleaning related. After a few of weeks of buying into that whole 'let the dishes pile up and don't worry about the state of the house' business, the house is now a disaster area (although we did keep on top of the dishes). It doesn't help that Joe and I have generous friends and family, so there was a huge pile of things that people gave the kid piling up in our living room that we didn't have time to put away. (Also if anyone needs a baby themed gift bag, I may have one or two kicking around!) At least she stays quiet for a little while when I put her down to do things - even when she's awake.
We've also been managing to get out of the house at least once a day lately, even if it's just for a walk around the block. She really doesn't like the stroller or the car seat though. There's usually lots of screaming when she gets put into one of them. Eventually it subsides and she falls asleep, but she can have some real staying power with her crying. As a result, we spend a lot of time with her in her sling. (hm, I should get a good picture of her in her sling.) With that, she just cries for a couple of minutes before she quiets down. I've got to build up my stamina with it though.

We're still having issues with the breast feeding, or rather with how much milk I have. It turned out that at her 1 month check up, the doctor was a little concerned with how little weight she had gained. Even though she was healthy in every other respect, she was only averageing a weight gain of around 16g a day since the 2 week visit and the healthy range is 15-30g. So she was in there, but very low on the scale. The doctor suggested we go back to supplementing with formula. Not a lot, just one ounce a day when my milk supply was lowest - but pump during that time so the milk supply could build up. (This really made my mother happy because she was convinced I was starving her granddaughter.) I also went back to the lactation consultant who helped me a lot - more mentally than physically. She also reassured me that Zoë was in fact growing and developing well. When we went back the next week she was up to 8lb 1oz and had averaged 23grams a day that week. I have one more appointment with the lactation consultant on Wednesday for another weight check, But I can tell she's getting heavy and she's starting to fit some of the sleepers she was swimming in a couple weeks ago.

Here are some pictures - weeks 3, 4 and 5

It's been just over two weeks now and things are going pretty well. She's almost back up to her birthweight. She had dropped the accepted 10% of her weight in three days and I was pretty worried about it dropping more as my milk supply had yet to kick in. We had to supplement with formula for a few days which was nice for Joe as he was able to feed her that way.
We are off the supplements now, but it's still tough going with the breastfeeding. We're still trying to get the latch right so I'm not in constant pain! I have also developed a touch of mastitis, so the girls are feeling really tender right now. Apparently the trick is cabbage leaves.
In other news, I'm trying to get back in the swing of day to day life now. I have to start getting out on a regular basis. It's going to be tough to get out of the house with her in the winter, so I want to take advantage of the fall weather while it lasts. And her schedule seems to have settled down so I can maybe start doing things other than feed her and sleep now.

And finally, for posterity, here are pictures of her at one day, 9 days and 14 days.

Oh man, I can't believe that Stephanie got a picture of Z on her blog before I did. Bad mommy blogger! (Joe's got a great picture on his blog as well) To make up for it, how about a birth story?

As a prelude, here I am in Triage, trying to kill some time.


Let's see, I had left off when we were waiting for my sister to come pick us up to head back out the the hospital. We got to the hospital at around 9:30am and was immediately shown into a labour room. (funny enough, it was the same one that we went into on our hospital tour back in July.) After the on call doctor did a quick exam that showed I was 3cm dilated and that my water had in fact broken (this really made Joe question the abilities of everyone in triage) they started me on an oxytocin drip.

Around this time, I asked my labour nurse if I could maybe walk around a bit. But she said that because my blood pressure was high, I wasn't allowed to. This was the start of a day long battle with my nurse. Every time I asked her if I could do something, she said no without compromise and without suggesting any alternatives. I was very dissapointed because everyone had told me that I would come to love my nurse and I could see that it wasn't going to happen between the two of us.

Anyway, with the oxytocin, the contractions really started to ramp up. For the first couple of hours I was fine, but by 2pm, my lack of sleep (I had only gotten a couple of hours before my water broke) was catching up with me and I was having trouble keeping a lid on the pain. I was about 5cm dilated at this point and Joe could see that I was starting to lose it. Thankfully he started the ball rolling on getting me an epidural.

Once the epidural was in, it was amazing. My blood pressure dropped back to normal, and even though I kept the dosage low enough that I could still feel every contraction, the pain was magically gone.

Around 5pm, another exam had me at fully dilated, but the baby wasn't descending. She was still pretty high in the pelvis (-2 station if that means anything to you). The doctors had me push for one contraction to see if she would move, and she did a little, but they decided to take it easy for a while and see if the contractions could move her down some more.

By this time, it was close to 7:30pm and almost time for the nursing shift change. Boy was I looking forward to that. Joe thought it was hilarious, I kept asking the nurse if her shift was nearly over. I guess I wasn't being very subtle.

Finally the day nurse left, and like a hurricane, my new nurse blew into the room. Her first words to us after she introduced herself was "We are going to deliver this baby vaginally." Which really makes Joe and I think there were some very advanced conversations between the medical professionals out of our earshot about cutting me open.

It was such a different atmosphere after that. She was much friendlier, and had a really upbeat and positive attitude that really energized all of us. (And it turned out that she was neighbours with one of my brothers!) She came on shift at 7:30 and by 8pm, she had drafted Joe to hold one of my legs and had me pushing through the contractions.

Time really started to lose meaning for me then. All I know is that I'm glad that I kept the dose low on the epidural because I was able to feel when to push. To the extent that I had to keep telling everyone when to get back in place for me to push.

I was scared that the pushing was going to go on for a while because my first nurse had said that it took an average of 2 hours per station to get the kid out. So that meant at least 6 hours according to my last exam. But apparently I'm really good at pushing. An hour and a half after I start pushing in earnest, out she popped.


at 9:37 pm on Sept 2nd 2007, Z was born. 20" long weighing 7lb 4oz.

And our first family portrait:

Just a quick note to say we are all doing well, just very tired. We're starting to come out of the haze though.
Thanks for all the best wishes. We're having an amazing time with her and when I get more than a couple of minutes to myself, I'll post pictures of Zoë and tell you all about it.

By the way, they weren't kidding about the 2nd night were they? It has now been dubbed 'the worst night of my life!'

Game On!

Well, I thought my water broke at around 4:20 this morning so as per my doctor's instructions, we made our way to the hospital to make sure the baby was in the correct position.
When we got there, the tests said that my water hadn't broken, but the ultrasound showed less fluid than the resident liked around the baby. Added that my blood pressure was starting to get high, they decided that they wanted to induce. Unfortunately, there wasn't a free bed at the time, so around 7:00am they sent me home telling me they would call when they could fit me in.
The call came at 8:15am. I am currently waiting for one of my sisters to pick me up to take us back to the hospital to be induced. I am having very mild, irregular contractions right now, but that's it.

The next time I post, I guess it will be with baby!

The warmest babies in Toronto

Ok, let's talk baby showers.
A couple of weeks ago, two of my very good friends, Stefanie and Maria got together to throw me a shower. (here they are preparing before the event)

Because it was the middle of summer and for some reason people like to take vacations then, not everyone could make it, but the turn out was still enough to fill Stefanie's back yard. (who knew I had so many friends?)
Games were played, food was eaten (lots and lots of food) and fun was had.
There were also many presents for the little one.
A few highlights from the gifts include:

A really cool bib with a hand embroidered duck from Jasmine (along with a Beatrix Potter book)


A kimono designed and made by my neice


and of course the baby monitor otherwise known as the 'walkie talkie set' from our friends Todd and Cait.

There was a lot more, including some really cute outfits and lots of necessary blankies, towels and diapers. But I'm a bad blogger and not much of it is recorded for posterity. But it will all be used, I assure you!

Then, last night at Lettuce Knit, the regular Wednesday night stitch and bitch turned into a massive 3 way baby shower for myself, Jen and Mel. Sadly none of us thought to bring our cameras so we will have to depend on the kindness of others - mostly Laura, for pictures of the actual event.
But I did take a picture today of all the beautiful knits that I have recieved for the little one. Stephanie mentioned that these three babies will be the warmest kids in Toronto this winter and I have to say I agree.


That's everything from last night, plus a couple of knitted things that were given to me earlier.
Across the bottom we have the orange placket sweater from Jill, the wrap sweater from Jean Anne, the bonnet and bootie set from Mel, and the gifts from Jen - the stuffed frog, the green booties, one of my fave kids books The Very Hungry Caterpiller and some amazing smelling Lush soap.
Next row up is the sweater from Laura made from her own handspun, and the infamous Tulip sweater from the Stephanie.
Above that are the blocks from Emily (whose daughter I love and would steal away in a second if I wasn't about to have my own), then the unbeliveably cute booties from Erin, across the blanket we have the stuffed ice cream cone (we've decided the flavour is french vanilla) from Aleta and Rachel H's gift of the beautiful stuffed sheep and the book, Is Your Mama a Llama.
But the piece de resistance is the amazing blanket that everyone from SnB contributed to.

Thank you to everyone. I can't believe how lucky I am to have such great friends and I can't wait for my daughter to meet all you wonderful people.

Another week, another doctor's appointment, another position for the baby.

At least this time, it's the correct position! Finally! She is head down with her back towards my front. She actually responded to the stern talking to she got from Joe last night to stop fooling around. This has really relieved a lot of anxiety on out part. We had been a bit terrified that we would go in for our appointment and the doctor would say 'what the hell, let's just get her out of there now' and start prepping me for a c-section right there - this actually happened to someone I know at work. I don't know the details of why she had to have a c-section, but her doctor decided at her weekly appointment that he had to get the baby out that day, but the way she told it, it didn't seem like it was an emergency. I've had a bit of irrational fear of that happening to me and it has spread to Joe.

I do have to admit that I am starting to really want her to be outside rather than inside now. I'm not necessarily sick of being pregnant, but I am getting really impatient. The tiredness and back aches have also increased to make me just not enthusiastic to do much of anything anymore. I am baking though, which I have been told means that labour is imminent.
It's funny, last week, I thought, no way I'm giving birth before my due date, now, I'm not so sure. For the longest time, I've has it in my head that she would be born on the 6th of September, but this last week, I've moved the estimate up to next weekend. I'm officially due the 3rd and I think I'll hit very close to that. Now I'm not sure that my body is telling me that or if it's just a case of wishful thinking!

Sorry about the lack of post last week. We went away for a few days and I've just been keeping myself too busy since we got back.
But the news for the week is that the baby changed position. She is no longer lying posterior but is now lying transverse (ie: sideways). This is worse. If I go into labour and she doesn't change position the likely course would be a C-section.
After 8 months of smooth sailing, now she decides to act up!
We are trying all we can think of to convince her to lie head down. I've been playing music through headphones very low on my pelvis, and Joe has been trying to talk her down as well. She moves around a bit when that is happening, but then it seems like she just goes back to her new favourite position.
This does give us a bit of hope though as she still seems to have a lot of room to move around in, and I don't feel like I'm going to be going into labour any time soon so we have some time to work with.
I've been told that swimming would help as well so I think if it's warm enough tomorrow, I will be off to my sister's place to just hang out in the pool for a while.

Well, I've officially started my mat leave today. It's really strange to think that I won't be going back into work until next September. Since going to work was the only thing giving my weeks structure, I expect to start losing track of what day it is by the end of the weekend.

I am happy about being off (really, who wouldn't be?) because now I can really concentrate on getting ready for the baby. Since at the end of the week I will be 37 weeks gone, I am considered full term!!! That means that technically, she can come ANY TIME NOW!!! and I am in no way ready for her. Joe is, but he doesn't have a house to clean and piles of baby clothes to launder. He put the crib up earlier this week (holy shit, there's a crib in our bedroom!) so his job is done. (this is not to say he doesn't help with cleaning the house, it's just that he doesn't feel quite the same need to say, clean out the fridge, like I do.)

I'm actually a bit intimidated by how much I need/want to do around the house before the baby arrives. I haven't hit the point with the nesting instinct that I have to start moving the furniture around or anything, well, only a little, but every time I look around, I see more places that I should really unclutter, and really is it so unreasonable to rent a carpet steamer for our one bit of carpet in the hallway?
But I will not start today. Today is all about me enjoying a day off. I hit the spa this afternoon for a pedicure that I got for my birthday. It's at the Elmwood, so I will be 'taking the waters' there before hand. Then I meet up with Joe to do a little shopping downtown and then off to meet up with everybody's favourite Drunken Knitters. The nesting instinct can wait until tomorrow.

A couple of things are making me worried today.

After months of being able to feel the ouline of the baby's bum and spine pretty clearly, it seems like sometime last week she decided, enough of that, and has turned. This means her back is now lying against my back and she is facing outward. This does not make me happy. The most immediate problem this creates is that she is now pressing on some nerves which is making my legs a little numb. It's not painful (that comes later) but it is strange and unnerving to not be able to feel front of my thighs when I walk.
The much bigger problem with the baby lying in a posterior position is that if I go into labour with her that way, it is reportedly a much more painful experience. Not to mention that it generally takes longer as well. Apparently there are things you can do to make her turn before labour, but it doesn't guarantee that she'll stay there!

The other thing that is worrying me today is my itchy feet. Apparently this could signal a problem with my liver that could result in a still birth. I did not know this prior to today. (The internet really can be a scary place!) It's been going on for a couple of weeks now, but I didn't think to mention it to the doctor. The numbness seemed so much more serious. That goes to show you that you have to mention every little thing to the doctor! I don't think it's much of a problem since I really only have the itching as a symptom, but I'm glad the doctor's appointments have ramped up to once a week now. I think I can wait until Tuesday's appointment to ask about this.

To end on happier news, my workmates threw me a surprise shower earlier this week! I was actually surprised because I don't finish until next Thursday and I didn't think they would do something that early. I got lots of great stuff including a few things off my registry. I've got to get down to Toys R Us and make sure they get taken off the list.

Oh man, so much to do and only one more month to do it all in!

Last night, Joe and I attended a baby care class given by Sunnybrook/Women's College hospital. This is different from the prenatal classes that we've been going to on Thursdays as this one only deals with the kid for the first three months of its life.
We got to change diapers on a doll and pretend to burp it. We got tips on how to bathe the kid and a really hard sell on carrying your baby (which we were already going to do anyway) which included a demonstration with various kinds of carriers - the baby bjorn, the ergo, the heart to heart sling (which Joe got to demonstrate) and a wraparound carrier (I forget which brand exactly). It was a fun class and all the couples were really into it. Joe and I really have to work on our swaddling skills though.
I have to say that all the pretending last night made me really impatient to be done with the pregnancy part of this whole thing. Joe and I both came out of the class just wanting to be able to hold our own baby.
It doesn't help that in the last couple of weeks I've been feeling more and more uncomfortable every day. It's little things like, as we were walking home last night, I couldn't figure out why my pelvic bone hurt so much. I started to rub the area and I realized it was because her head was resting right on top of the bone, more or less grinding into it as I walked.
And I thought sleeping was bad a couple of months ago! I'm finding it completely impossible to find a comfortable position to sleep in. When I toss and turn at 4 in the morning, I think she thinks it's playtime because suddenly she starts to roll and kick in there which doesn't help the sleeping any either.
It's really only minor irritations, but I am starting to see why women at the end of their pregnancies are suddenly so sick of the whole thing. It's been a great run, but lets get this thing over with already!

In that vein, I just filled out my last time sheet at work before I go on leave! (only 15 more days - 5 of which are weekends - before I'm out of here! Woot!)

Well, on Tuesday, we finally got around to picking up the crib from my cousin. Now all we have to do is assemble the sucker!
Joe has been getting really antsy about it as he wants to be sure we have everything ready. I think he got spooked when he learned that the baby is considered full term and could be expected anytime after the second week in August. I personally think she's going to come after my due date. After all, my family is not really well known for their punctuality.

It's funny thinking that my pregnancy will be over really soon though. Lately there have been a few things that have underscored how little time is left before the baby comes.
The day before yesterday, a friend from work who is on Mat leave stopped by to give me the first presents I've received for her.
Yesterday, I passed a church with a sign out front advertising a rummage sale for Sept 1. That kind of freaked me out. There shouldn't be ads for things happening in September already!
And tonight, we go on the hospital tour with our neonatal class.
It just seems that things are happening way earlier than they should. It's still the middle of July after all!
We've still got tons of time! Right?

3D ultrasound!

The sharp pain seems to have receded so I am just putting it down to a pulled muscle of some sort. She's still moving and I can hear the heartbeat occasionally with our fetal monitor so I wasn't as panicked as I could have been.

Tonight starts a panic of a different kind though. We start our prenatal classes at Women's College tonight. 3 hours every Thursday night for all of July. Joe has already said to me that he really doesn't want to watch any movies that they might want to show him. And God knows I've been in a bit of denial about the whole birth thing myself. I'm not sure I'm ready to confront exactly what to expect during the process. Why oh why have we gotten away from the days when, at the first sign of a contraction, they knocked you out and when you came to, they handed you a baby? Why did I decide to actually bear a child rather than adopt? I can barely stand the leg cramps I've been getting at night.

Just my luck.
As you know, I haven't had any major problems at all this entire pregnancy. But now that my OB-GYN is on holiday for the next couple of weeks I am suddenly experiencing some weird sharp pain about an inch left of my belly button and I would really love his reassurance about it.
It's intermittent but occasionally very painful. Especially when I first get out of bed. It started yesterday morning, and for the most part it went away as the day went on, with only small twinges every now and then. But this morning as I was getting out of bed, it really hit me. I actually had to lie back down for a little bit until the pain subsided.
I can still feel her moving around, so I'm not too worried, but I would like to know what's going on.
Should I go to the hospital for this? Part of me feels that it isn't that serious and that I would be wasting hours just to find out it was perfectly normal, but then I can't stop thinking and worrying about it!