Packing for Space: Science Fiction

Stocking up and packing baby stuff is a lot less easy when you know that you'll be out on a colony that has literally *nothing* that isn't requisitioned in advance. There won't be a baby store you can run to to find something you forgot about, and there won't be a delivery network that can get you whatever you think is necessary within 24 hours of you discovering that you need it. My mother tried to reassure me by telling me that hundreds of years ago pioneer women were in the same situation, and most of their babies survived just fine! For starters, shes not a historian (I am), and so she doesn't realize exactly how awful the survival rates for infants back in the day really were. Fortunately, most of that was for medical reasons, and one thing that we are guaranteed is an absolutely top notch medical team, an expert vaccine formulation, in-home health AIs analyzing and monitoring every little breath and heart murmur. In a lot of ways, our health will be better looked after there than it is here. I mean, how many private citizens an afford a doctor on call and 24/7 monitoring? Not many, that's how many. And I know I'll have enough nappies and bottles and blankets. I'm just worried about the things I'm not thinking of. I even begged my sister-in-law to let me just stay in her house for a week and help out with her one-year-old. She didn't refuse, funnily enough! And I did get a few more ideas, but it's not the same as what I might need for a newborn or a six-month-old. I'm just going through all the lists and asking every mother I meet. My husband initially joked that I was going to fill up our shipping allowance with baby stuff. I think he means it less as a joke now, although the amount we were given seemed princely and impossibly large when it first came up.


Inspiration: An email with a subject line about packing for baby.
Story potential: Medium.
Notes: Though I do like the idea of including a pregnant woman the next time I write a colonization/space story. Extra needs, different priorities.