Apache 2.0.52 Max Clients reached AND repeating errors

Greetings,

My problem is possibly two fold, or it is two seperate problems. I'm
unsure, so I will include as much information as possible.

About two months ago I added the following to my httpd.conf file:
=====
RewriteLock /usr/local/apache/var/run/rewritemap_locks
RewriteMap ldap_lookup prg:/usr/local/apache/etc/apache_lookup.pl
RewriteRule ^/+~([^/]+)(.*) /~${ldap_lookup:$1|$1}$2 [PT]
=====

The apache_lookup.pl, is a simple perl program which connect to an LDAP
database and does translations on user directories (for aliases).

It worked flawlessly, until about 2 weeks ago, where, without warning,
user directories become unavailable.

I upgraded my apache to 2.0.52 (most recent), and now I'm having
multiple problems. The first problem seems to still happen, but I"m
also receiving:
=========
[Fri Jan 21 01:16:31 2005] [error] server reached MaxClients setting,
consider raising the MaxClients setting
[Fri Jan 21 07:05:09 2005] [warn] child process 1056813 still did not
exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Fri Jan 21 07:05:09 2005] [warn] child process 1056274 still did not
exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Fri Jan 21 07:05:09 2005] [warn] child process 1057943 still did not
exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Fri Jan 21 07:05:09 2005] [warn] child process 1056208 still did not
exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Fri Jan 21 07:05:09 2005] [warn] child process 1508561 still did not
exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Fri Jan 21 07:05:09 2005] [warn] child process 1058534 still did not
exit, sending a SIGTERM
=========

I upped the MaxClients settings and still I get the same errors, and
apache stops accepting new connections.

I ran a system trace on the apache process, and the following error,
#36, keeps popping up.
===========
write (9, 0x1fffbd78, 1) = 1
+ 21 <00000000> !
socket (AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, PF_UNSPEC) = 20
fcntl (20, F_GETFL, _) = 2 <O_RDWR>
fcntl (20, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK) = 0
connect (20, 0x1401741c0=<2/INET, 443, 155.247.166.104>, 16) = -1,
Errno 36 (Operation now in progress)
poll ( 0x11fffbc40={{20, <POLLOUT>, <>}}, 1, 3000) = 1, [ {{20, <>,
<POLLOUT>}}, , ]
getsockopt (20, SOL_SOCKET, SO_ERROR, 0x11fffbd38, 0x11fffbd30=4) = 0 [
, , , 0, 4 ]
close (20) = 0
wait4 (-1, 0x11fffbe20, WNOHANG|WUNTRACED, 0x0) = 1104819 [ , <exit 0>,
, ]
wait4 (-1, 0x11fffbe20, WNOHANG|WUNTRACED, 0x0) = 0
select (0, 0x0={}, 0x0={}, 0x0={}, 0x11fffbe50={1,0}) = SIGNAL [20
SIGCHLD]
0
============

Like I stated above, I'm unsure if these are 2 seperate problems (the
maxclients and the user directories), but I wanted to include
everything so that my whole thought process would be displayed.

I can include a copy of the apache_lookup.pl if anyone feels that might
aid them in helping me out.

Thanks in advanace.

Mike