The medicine

"Mama, you need to decide about the medicine," Isaac told me several nights ago.

If you've spoken with me recently, you know what medicine he was talking about, because I no doubt discussed it with you: should I take Dramamine to prevent my inevitable motion sickness on an upcoming flight to visit Craig's parents?

Trying to decide whether to take the medicine has been on my mind lately, so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised to hear that it was on Isaac's mind too. I certainly never spoke with Isaac directly about my dilemma, but obviously he is paying attention to my conversations with other people. Maybe one conversation wouldn't have made much of an impression on him, but after hearing me talk and talk and talk about it, he must have realized I was having a hard time making up my mind.

I was impressed by his sensitivity and attentiveness. And although I might have felt pressured and irritated by the same remark coming from anyone else, it was pretty sweet coming from my three-year-old son. So I told him, "I'll decide sometime before we get on the plane, honey. You don't need to worry about it." Of course, I continued to worry about it myself.

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I get motion sick very easily, and Dramamine helps a lot. If I don't take it before a flight, and we hit any turbulence at all, I'll feel terribly queasy and probably even throw up. Plus I've been more queasy than usual during this pregnancy, so I've had more problems with motion sickness as well.

Dramamine is rated Category B for pregnancy, so it isn't exactly a dangerous drug. And since I'm already 23 weeks pregnant, I'm way past the danger zone of organogenesis -- at this point the baby pretty much just needs to get fatter. Both my OB's office and my midwife said it was okay. Every study I looked up said it was okay. But I was still uncertain.

When I was pregnant with Isaac, I flew twice -- once very early on, and one at about six months along. I didn't take Dramaine either time, and I remember feeling very ill. But I believed strongly that preventing a few hours' worth of my nausea just wasn't worth taking what I saw as a potential risk to the baby. I wanted to do the right thing, even if it caused me personal distress, and even if the risks were very minimal.

But this time? I took the darn Dramamine. And when it started to wear off after four hours, I took a second dose.

I think this is one of the first times I've realized that having a second child is going to be a different experience.

- - - - -

My decision was made much easier by the fact that I actually started to feel ill while we were still in the car driving to the airport! If I was going to get carsick so easily, I knew I was going to be in big trouble on the airplane. And the plane did hit about 20 minutes of constant turbulence, so it's a good thing I took the medicine.

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Isaac luckily has never been motion sick -- he seems to have inherited his father's sturdy stomach. They recently went on one of those spinning teacup rides at an amusement park, and they both really enjoyed it. I felt queasy just watching them.