Dental Work vs. Childbirth: A Comparative Analysis

I went to the dentist yesterday for the first of three visits to get my mouth up to par. I toughed it out and decided against the Nitrous Oxide. Saved $50 in the process. I had a partial crown and two fillings done. This dentist has the technology in his office to make the crown there and put it in on the same visit. That was pretty nice not having to wear one of those awful temporary crowns. He took some pictures of the tooth, worked on the computer for a few minutes and "printed out" my crown. It really came from what looked like a slightly oversized paper printer. Now, when I saw him go over with a screwdriver and start messing with the printer because it sounded like it was jammed or something, that was a little disconcerting.

I brought an mp3 player with me to try to drown out the sounds. I was doing alright, the drilling wasn't too bad, and then he switched drills on me or something. It sounded like he got a drill bit 10 sizes larger than the previous and it completely drowned out my music. I scrambled for the volume, but there was no covering up that much sound. I would tense up when he went to work and then when he stopped, my whole body would relax, just in time to tense up again when he got back to it. Man, I hate that place. After about and hour and a half, they finally said the most beautiful words anyone could've said to me, "Ok, you're all done". Ahhhhhhhh.

They said, "that wasn't so bad, was it?" To which I replied, "no offense, but I'd rather give birth than do that anyday". The dentist told me I'd be surprised how often they hear that. I said, "but I didn't have an epidural". They informed me at that point that I was, in fact, crazy.

It's weird, I didn't feel much pain other than the shot, but I would still rather have a baby. I had a fairly easy, short birth, so maybe that's why. I think part of it is it's so unknown what's going on. I keep my eyes closed the whole time, because I don't want to see all the equipment, so I don't have any idea what they're doing. When you're having a baby, you're at least somewhat in control, of how you deal with the pain at least, and have some idea of what's happening to your body. Also, childbirth is a completely natural occurance. Our bodies were designed to have babies. Having someone messing around in your mouth, placing foreign objects within, not so much.

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Clara's new word is "chrosh" or trash. Even though she knows she's not supposed to get in the chrosh, she still has a difficult time keeping her hands out of the chrosh. The chrosh is sooooooo much fun! You never know what's going to be in there from one time to the next.

And she calls butterflies "na-na's". Not really sure why, but ok. We were in Target and she started pointing at the ceiling saying "na-na's, na-na's". Sure enough, I look up and there were butterflies hanging from the ceiling. I love seeing her spot things that I never would. I'm always in such a hurry, or just not paying attention, but she sees everything. It's like seeing the world from a whole new perspective.

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T minus 1 hour until Clara's Grandma and Granddad swoop in for Operation Spoil the Grandchild.