Then, in the final moments of my nearly 24-hour labor, I ended up having a thing I didn’t even remember reading about: chorioamnionitis, or “chorio” (like Oreo with a hard C sound at the beginning), for short.

It wasn’t as bad as many of the other “worsts” I’d prepared myself for, but it got us stuck in the hospital for an extra week, which obviously wasn’t ideal. So I figured I’d share my tale so that any expecting moms reading it are aware of one more potential scenario.

I'm smiling because I have no idea what's about to happen to me.

My labor started out pretty typically. I was 40 weeks and six days pregnant, and woke up at 4 on a Tuesday morning with contractions. I labored at home for a bit; then, my husband, Matt, drove me to the hospital around 9. I wasn’t dilating very quickly, so at 1 p.m., a doctor came in and broke my water.

Dozens more contractions, several different positions and one epidural later, it was after midnight and finally time to start the actual delivery. I felt weak, exhausted and kind of strange, but I figured, “Well, this is childbirth.” The prospect of holding my baby girl soon got me pushing. Unfortunately, she hadn’t moved much after a half hour, so we took a break.

When we resumed, my attending nurse felt my head and exclaimed, “Oh, Mama, you’re hot!” It turned out I had a fever of 101; plus, my heart rate and the baby’s were both high. That’s when I heard her say the word to one of the other nurses.

“Chorio.”

“What’s that?” I demanded.

“It’s an infection,” she explained. “The more time that goes by after they break your water, the more likely it is that your amniotic sac will get infected. You’ve gone more than 12 hours.”

Suddenly, there were a lot more people in our room, and it was clear to me that it was Go Time. I pushed with every morsel of energy I could muster — so hard, in fact, that I threw up.

Julie’s head was stuck under my pubic bone, so my OB/GYN had to use a vacuum (which seemed more like a glorified suction cup on a string to me) to pull her out as I continued to push. I suffered a third-degree tear, and Julie was covered in meconium (her first bowel movement) when she finally emerged at 2:51 a.m.

Good thing I tried not to have any expectations, right?

Matt and I got to hold Julie briefly, but then she was whisked away to receive antibiotics because she, too, had the infection. I would only need antibiotics for 48 hours; she would need them for an entire week.

Fortunately, our hospital lets moms and dads of newborns who need prolonged care stay in their rooms as long as they’re not needed by other patients. So although I was “discharged” from the hospital on Friday morning, Matt and I both stayed put until the following Wednesday.

We sure missed our queen-size pillowtop at home, but at least we had our girl.

Julie got her vitals checked every 24 hours from her birth (every night at 2:51 a.m.), received her IV medication every 12 hours from her first dose (at 5 p.m. and 5 a.m. daily), and the pediatrician checked on her every morning at 7 a.m. Needless to say, we didn’t sleep much.

It certainly wasn’t the most ideal way to spend the first week of our daughter’s life, but we tried to focus on the positive things: all of the doctors, nurses and hospital staff members were amazing; we had lots of sweet visitors once we convinced them the infection wasn’t contagious; I got to spend extra time with the hospital’s lactation consultant, and breastfeeding went extremely well; we ordered some delicious food from nearby restaurants; we got fresh air in the courtyard, where the azaleas were in bloom; and we used a ton of free diapers.

When it was finally time to go home Wednesday morning, I’d been up walking around the hospital for days, but the volunteers insisted on wheeling me out with Julie in my arms like all the other mamas. I’ll never forget all the smiles we got as we creaked down the halls and out the sliding doors into the sunshine.

The day my daughter was born was not the happiest day of my life. The day we busted out of that hospital was.

We're smiling because we get to go use our own bathroom.

Mollee and her husband, Matt, live in Midlothian, Virginia, with their daughter, Julie, and their two Chihuahuas. Formerly a graphic designer, Mollee now stays at home with Julie, but she still enjoys making things with her hands and blogging about them. Find her recipes, paintings and crafts at molleemade.com.

Newly pregnant gals might not know much about labor, but they know one thing – it’s gonna hurt. Like, a lot. We’ve all seen those sweaty, screaming ladies in labor on TV, throwing obscenities at their husbands. Are we all destined to become crazy, mom-beasts once it’s time for our little ones to enter the world?

Not necessarily.

Modern medicine has opened the door for relatively pain-free births (well, as pain free as possible, anyway!). Plus, we’ll talk about natural methods of pain relief too.

1. Natural pain relief methods (water birth, showers, breathing techniques, Hypnobabies, etc.). Some super awesome women decide to go au naturale with their birth plan and choose not to use medically invasive pain relief options. They are, in a word, rockstars.

If you decide that this is the right path for you, make sure you start preparing early! Many of the techniques for managing pain naturally take some preparation and practice on your part and you don’t want to panic in the middle of labor and be disappointed afterwards.

2. IV Medications (Stadol, Demerol, etc.) A less popular option for pain relief, your doctor or midwife may speak with you about certain pain relievers that can be administered through your IV. They don’t numb you (like an epidural – see below), but they are designed to provide you with some relief and make your pain more bearable. However, some of them cross the placenta and can have some icky side effects for baby, so be sure to talk to your doctor about what is best!

3. Epidural or Spinal Block. Considered the holy grail of pain relief options, these two options basically numb you from the waist down. A doctor will use a needle to insert a catheter into your back that will provide you with continuous pain relief that can be adjusted. So, if you want less numbness for the pushing stage, generally the medication can be adjusted to allow you to have some feeling.

Squeamish about needles? Unless you specifically ask, you probably won’t even see the needles being used, since the doctor will be behind you.

Sound too good to be true? There are some side effects and, for some women, the epidural fails, for whatever reason or it only works on one side of their body. Plus, you have to get a catheter to pee, since, you know, you can’t saunter over to the restroom yourself. And, you’re kind of immobile for the most part, but some hospitals offer a “walking epidural,” which allows a woman to experience an epidural with some muscle use, so she is not confined to a bed for her labor.

Consider your pain relief options carefully. Whether you’ll go natural all the way, or choose to get the epidural ASAP, the prize is the same – a beautiful, little baby!

Jennifer and her husband, Robert, live in Tidewater, Virginia, and expect their bundle of joy to arrive in November 2013. (Check out her baby guessing game - you could win $100!) Besides expounding on the amazing/scary/life-changing topic of pregnancy, Jennifer is the full-time blogger behind Not Your Momma’s Cookie, where she tries to make cool treats and frequently shares embarrassing stories.