Long night

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.)