> TEOTWAWKI Blog: New family member, overnight bags and EDC eval

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6/27/14

New family member, overnight bags and EDC eval

The Wolf family grew by one more earlier this week. For those counting, that's three boys, rounding out the fireteam. He came out a big, strong boy - everything went smoothly, everyone is doing well.


A trip to the hospital can always be a little bit interesting by way of logistics. With a baby, you get advanced warning--but that's obviously not always the case.
CommanderZero noted earlier this week the practicality of having a simple overnight bag ready to go at a moment's notice.


I have an overnight bag kicking around - this duffle with a toiletry kit, change of clothes, quarters, some spare cash, food and caffeine. I wouldn't buy the duffel again - too small. Otherwise, the bag sits in my closet and has that stuff ready to go for a short notice trip somewhere. Nothing fancy or revolutionary, which is why I haven't blogged about it before.

For this trip to the hospital, I ended up just taking some of the contents out of the overnight bag and dropped them into my EDC bag. The main compartment of the EDC bag is 90% empty, and I was going to take the it anyways (laptop, etc.), so why carry another bag? As Dad, I get to play pack mule with pillows, baby gear, car seats and my wife's stuff anyways, so nice to give myself a break there.

Though the overnight bag didn't actually get used, it was handy to have stuff organized, clothes clean and everything one place to plunder from. I may rework the overnighter around a little bit bigger sized bag - allow it to support a couple more days of clothing or bulkier winter wear, for example. Or maybe leave as-is.

So, for the after action report - a quick run down of what got used, what didn't?

Water bottle - no drinking fountains at the hospital, no water bottles or cup available to me

Food - Limited cafeteria hours, no convenient vending machines and not wanting to bail on the spouse until things were settled meant I was eating the food I brought with. Ate a Metrx bar and a couple Clif bars.

Shemagh - hospital provided blankets for the baby, but they were scratchy and not stylish. My EDC shemagh worked much better.

Military Energy Gum - this was a trial run for this stuff, and it worked awesomely. A single piece has 100mg of caffeine, which is enough to shove  drowsiness into the background. Kicks in within a few minutes, doesn't leave you with burps and a full belly/bladder like a 16 ounce Monster and less nasty and lighter weight than a 5 Hour Energy. Tastes ok, though the gum gets a mildly nasty flavor after a few minutes. Henceforth, these are going in all my kits as the go-to caffeine source.

Ibuprofen - Had a headache...little sleep, constant lights and noises...who'd have thought?

Phone wall charger - No brainer. Lots of dead time for Dad, spent most of it on my phone.

Anker backup battery - The wife mooched this. There was no convenient outlet to her hospital bed and she needed to charge her phone.

SnugPak Jungle Bag - This got yanked from the bug out bag for sleeping in on the lousy hospital couch. Great bag and a go-to due to its small size. Wish the HPG Mountain Serape packed down this small. For an 'overnight' bag/kit, I recommend having a sleeping bag and pillow (or similar) handy. Helps a lot if you end up crashing on a couch some place.

Toiletry kit - Floss and toothbrush, 'cuz dental hygiene is good. Showered at home after baby arrived and things chilled, but had stuff for one mean hobo bath if needed.

Headphones - 'Nuff said.

That's about it for the used category.

Did not really want for anything more than a sweatshirt - they kept the room at what felt like barely above freezing.

Couldn't find the little notebook I keep in the bag for writing notes. Need to track it down or replace it.

Hospital free wi-fi sucked and I ended up using my phone as a wireless hotspot when I did use the laptop. Mostly just used the phone.

One thing I did notice: I'm getting tired of my laptop - the toddler has busted off a couple keys, it's heavy and runs on Windows 8, which is generally acceptable but occasionally massively annoying. I will likely replace it within a year, and will likely move to Apple given the direction Microsoft has taken.

Anyways, all matters of comfort and convenience versus anything serious, but I'm a nerd and like to evaluate how my crap worked out after the fact.

No planned hiatus from posting at this point. The EDC bag contest closes for new entries on Monday - I'll have a couple of the last entries up over the weekend. If you want to try to get in before the close, check out the details here.