Last night was a pretty big night in our house. After Z's bath and bedtime, things were pretty quiet. Then Mei-mei had a diaper blow-out, so she got to have an unplanned bath. After she was clean and warm, we put her to bed. I nursed her at 11:30 PM and then tried to get some sleep myself.
At 1:15 AM, we were jolted awake by screams from Z's room. I ran in and found him standing up, screaming, and covered in something red. My first thought was, "He's bleeding". Then I noticed the smell, and realized that no, it wasn't blood -- it was his spaghetti & meatball dinner. All over him and his crib. Chris came in, so I stripped Z down and gave him to Chris to clean off. Chris gave him a quick bath while I changed the sheets and threw it all into the laundry with his pajamas, his blanket, and his stuffed animals.
Z was clean and calmer by 2 AM, so we put him back to bed in his freshly-changed sheets. I went downstairs to finish cleaning things up when I heard him start screaming again. I raced back upstairs to find him again standing up, crying, and covered in vomit. Once again, we stripped him down, took him downstairs for a bath, and changed the sheets. While Chris bathed him, I ran to the store to pick up some Pedialyte.
(Side story: The only other person at the store at 3 AM was a tired-looking man who was scanning the diapers as I came in. He found the diapers he was looking for, saw me with a bottle of Pedialyte and a can of air freshener in my hand, grimaced and said, "Oooh, tough night, huh?")
When I got back home, Z was happily tucked into our bed while Mei-mei screamed at the top of her lungs. I nursed Mei-mei while Chris gave Z sips of Pedialyte. Z seemed much more comfortable and was chatting up a storm. We put him back to bed around 3:30 AM, when I went downstairs to run the second load of laundry. I finally got into bed myself at 4:30 AM.
Z woke up around 6 AM and started talking, and Mei-mei woke up at 6:15 AM to nurse again. The day had started. Z seemed to be in good spirits and had a healthy appetite at breakfast, so after 3 pairs of pajamas, 3 sets of crib sheets, 2 loads of laundry, 2 baths, and one trip to the drugstore, things have settled down. Other than the whole "overtired toddler" thing.
(We think it was the meatballs. Needless to say, those are some left-overs we won't be saving.)