Chorioamnionitis

Chorioamnionitis is an infection of the membranes (placental tissues) and amniotic fluid. It occurs in about 1 to 2 percent of all pregnancies, but is much more common in preterm births. Chorioamnionitis can cause bacteremia (blood infection) in the mother and may lead to preterm birth and serious infection in the newborn baby. Other terms for chorioamnionitis include intra-amniotic infection and amnionitis.

Please believe me when I tell all of you that this is the very first moment to myself that I have had that has not involved sleeping or taking a shower. I have been so anxious to tell all of you about how the crazy tale of how little Aubrey made his entry into this world. First of all, for all of those heard me over and over again about the sex of the baby, I was still a bit shocked to hear that I was carrying a boy all along. Something in me just knew since the day I took that pregnancy test. The funny thing though is that now that he is here, I keep referring to him as she. J I think maybe it is just out of habit because the other living thing in the house besides my dear hubby is Haley our nutty mutt and we all know what a lady she is.

So I know that some of you know about how things got off to the start, but I have not had a chance to catch up with most of you. That definition up there explains part of the problem that happened with the birth of our wonderful little Mr.Bright.

I actually went into labor quite early on Thursday morning not too long after I dropped Ashley off at work. Haley and I took our usual stroll around Volunteer park without too much incident until I came upon a little pond by the big donut sculpture where I saw a Blue Heron like 10 feet from me. It was just hanging out there and looking at us. The damn bird looks like a stork I thought and I took it as a good sign. I even commented to the bird how I was happy to see it and I was hoping that it would bring me my baby soon as I was starting to avoid everyone’s phone calls and I even got snippy with my mom for asking me for the 10th time if the baby had been born. I almost told her that he was born last week and I just forgot to call her, but that would probably have pushed the bitchy button just a tad too far. J Claudia or Elena, if you are reading this, tell mom I am sorry I was so bitchy. J

As I was saying, I was in labor pretty early and I really didn’t know it till about 3pm that afternoon when in the middle of making homemade chowder and homemade apple pie (I kid you not) I was starting to feel some serious back pain and pelvic pain. I chalked it up to too much activity, but I also knew that activity was also the classic “nesting” that I had been told about. Well at around 8:30pm, I started to get concerned because I had hardly felt the baby move. The pain was manageable and it was not that strong. I called my doctor to let her know what was going on and she told me to go to triage just to get the baby monitored to make sure everything was ok. We went to Swedish and they set me up with a fetal monitor and determined that the baby was ok. However upon the examination of my cervix (that was the first traumatic incidence) it was determined that I was only 1 cm dilated and so they sent me home to wait it out. That was ok as I knew the drill and it would probably take a few more hours for things to ripen up. So, we went home and I took a shower got into bed and started breathing through the contractions and even sleeping through them as well. It was painful, but nothing off the charts. Around 4am, the pain is becoming less manageable and more regular and I was pretty convinced that I was further along and it would probably be a good idea to check into the hospital, take Ms.Haley pants to her uncle Dave’s and finally have this baby that all of you were so eager to meet. We get to triage and at this point I really can’t walk more that 10 feet without having a contraction that knocks the wind out of me, however, still manageable with breathing techniques and Ashley helping me through them. First thing they do, is check my cervix to see how far along I had come since 9pm. Turns out that I haven’t come far along at all. I am still 1cm, but the contractions are coming nice and strong and they hurt like a motherscratcher. Also at this point, the monitors are set up for me and Aubrey, and it turns out Aubrey is not doing much in there. For the next 5 hours in a room the size of a closet, hooked up to a machine while every other nurse checks my cervix, I go through some of the most pain I have ever experienced in my life. I am still using my breathing techniques, my hubby is being a marvelous coach, still using the limited amount of pain management aloud by being hooked up to machines, but the baby is not doing well. The thing here is that even if I had wanted medication at that point, I was not aloud to have it since I was maybe 2 cm now after over 10 hours of intense back labor. Oh, yeah it was all back labor- never felt it in my uterus at all. I thought, maybe the baby just is in the wrong position- oh – but low and behold the last cervix examination done while I was having a contraction revealed that the baby had NOT DROPED. I felt the wind knocked out of me and I just lost it completely. I was bawling begging the doctor to get her hand out of me and that I just could not take her examining me any longer. I begged- I remember begging. At this point, she ordered that I go to ultrasound immediately to have the baby accessed and to check on my amnio fluid. Granted my water had not broken yet. The results were not good. Where usually there is a low score of 8 for the amount of fluid present, there was only 4 AND the baby was scoring low on the heart tones and movement scale. Finally, the doctor decided to admit me to a birthing suite and I was relieved, because I knew that I would be getting in that nice big Jacuzzi as soon as I got in the door. WRONG! They wanted to monitor me and baby and since the portable fetal monitors would do a poor job of that, I would have to be hooked up again to a machine. They wanted to check for the baby’s movement some more and they wanted him out of there ASAP. At this point the doc suggested Pictocin and I knew what that meant. I knew that meant stronger and more painful contractions and thus I knew I had to pull out the big guns. Call the epidural men. If this is what barely 2 cm felt like, screw that- I would not be able to handle more pain than that. I would have passed out for sure and this is without something the size of a Cornish game hen coming out of my little Debbie snack cake.

The moment that drug was pumped in me was the moment I fell in love all over again with some complete stranger. Holy cow it was delicious. Never mind that my back was slathered in blood as I was learning later or that I had lost all decency as a human being and lady with the bodily functions, I was feeling nothing and that was all good with me. Then it hit me, the shivers started coming. However, I never took it as a bad thing as I had remembered my friend Cindy telling me that had happened to her during her labor and she had an epidural. Also, I casually remember it being something to look for with an epidural during my birthing classes. However, in my situation, that was not the case. I had developed a fever and a blood draw reveled that I had a serious infection and more than likely so did Aubrey. Even though I was cold as hell and shivering, I was burning up inside. After the epidural took effect, the pictocin was administered. They would give me one hour to see how baby and my body responded. The baby did fine on the drug, but my cervix would not move one more cm. After an hour of the all mighty pictocin, my cervix refused to open and I was still stuck at 2cm. For all those not familiar with all this cervix and dilation stuff, 10cm is where you want to end up at to be able to deliver vaginally.

At approximately 3pm on Friday, the doctor came to me and let me have it. She said that there was no guarantee that I would do ok if we went with a vaginal delivery and could not guarantee that baby would be fine either. She made up her mind and then we were off to the operating room. In about a span of 5 minutes, my room went from 2 nurses and my doc to a team of specialists and what was starting to look like a season finale of ER.

All I know is this- nothing in my birth plan went the way I wanted it to go and that was OK- It had always been ok. I had made peace with the whole aspect of not having control over everything in my life including the pregnancy and the care I was going to receive in the process. For me and really for us it was about having the most information as possible to make the best decisions. It was not about trying to prove a point to anyone or myself really, it was about trying to experience and honor something that I had come to want to experience in the best possible way. It was a very personal thing for me and by no means did the operation take anything away from that. In the grand scheme of things I came out feeling grateful and in awe of life in all aspects. To appreciate the creation of life and the force and energy of mother nature and a new added respect and appreciation of the beauty that the gift of the mind she has given us all to better our world. No one power is greater. In the end it is all a balance.

In the end of it all at 4:01 pm on Friday the 20th, Aubrey was born. In the process of being prepped and cut open and before I heard his cry, I looked up at Ashley and had a fleeting thought. I could barely see his eyes behind the mask and scrubs, but saw enough to whisper it was going to be ok even though in my mind at the time, I did not feel strong enough to even be present for my child’s birth. I thought, this is it- this is where it ends, but boy what a life I had been blessed to have lived. How many people can say they have given life, been surrounded by so many friends and family who care for them and seen all that I had seen? How many could say that the last moments of their life would be spent looking into the eyes of the one that is the most important person of their life. How many could even say they had found their true love. So you see it was ok by me if this was it as I had been blessed beyond belief. And then it hit me- I heard his cry and I just told myself to just keep breathing and it has been alright.
The doctors still are not sure how I got so sick and how I never showed symptoms and we may never know, but that is ok because we are here.


Libra is the only inanimate sign of the zodiac, all the others representing either humans or animals. Many modern astrologers regard it as the most desirable of zodiacal types because it represents the zenith of the year, the high point of the seasons, when the harvest of all the hard work of the spring is reaped. There is a mellowness and sense of relaxation in the air as mankind enjoys the last of the summer sun and the fruits of his toil. Librans too are among the most civilized of the twelve zodiacal characters and are often good looking. They have elegance, charm and good taste, are naturally kind, very gentle, and lovers of beauty, harmony (both in music and social living) and the pleasures that these bring.