When the night isn't long enough

My spouse and I take turns being the one to get up in the night with the kids. I WISH our boys would sleep through the night but they don't yet. By taking turns it gives one of us the chance of getting a "better" sleep.
Last night it was my turn with the boys. Max was fussing and fussing and fussing and I could not figure out what was wrong. I summoned the expertise of the spouse and asked her to see what was wrong with him because I could not figure it out.
She visits with him for a while and brings him downstairs and says to me he as a stomachache. She is the baby whisperer or something because I had NO idea what was wrong with him.
We have tried a couple of time to bring him into our bed when he is not feeling well, but it has never worked out. He does not settle down and we always end up taking him right back upstairs to his room.
Last night he proceeded to wake up the baby, put post it notes all over the bedroom wall, and tear the bed apart before I took him back upstairs. He was still fussing, but we were all exhausted and the poor baby had been woken up every time he fell asleep.
I think he was back upstairs for all of ten minutes before he started to scream. I ran up to find he had barfed all over his bed.
Thus began the night.
I THINK he ate some bad ham or goat cheese but no-one else in the family ate it so I don't know if it was bad or not. He barfed 12 times in 6 hours. Barf in his bed. Barf on the couch. Barf on our bedspread. Barf in the spare room. We had to shower at least once in the night and we went through the entire drawer of pajamas, changing every time he puked on himself.
It was a VERY VERY long night. He wanted me to rub his head (which is a miracle in itself) but every time I started to doze off he would wake me to keep my hand moving. I absolutely hate it when he is sick, but the fact that he wants to be held and touched goes against what the doctors said when we brought him home from the hospital. Even though I am so tired I can't see straight and I smell like puke even though I have no more orifices to clean, I absolutely LOVE that he wants to snuggle into me and have me rub his head when he is not feeling good. I just wish he would do it when it was more convenient for me!
I had no idea there could be so much fluid in one tiny body. We now have a pile of laundry that is taller than the washing machine.
He finally started to feel better this morning and at around 9 am he went to bed and slept until 1pm.
From the time he work up he wanted to be outside. He is out there with Shel now raking and digging and otherwise being very industrious. I hope he tires himself out completely and wants to go to bed for the night at 3:45 pm (that's a few minutes from now)