All Gone

What a weird bedtime. All went according to plan: dinner, bath, nappy & jammies, then books on the couch with Mommy & Daddy, night nights and then mad dash into the bedroom, eagerly climbing into bed, and "nana please Mommy." The problem was that he didn't fall asleep between the two sides of nana and then was increasingly awake. So I left. Not the disaster I imagined.

We exchanged about 3 mintues of "Mommy!" -- "Sleepy time Johnny. Night Night." (repeat) Then he started crying, so Daddy went in. He shouted "Mommy! Mommy!" for about 10 minutes. At one point it sounded like he was giving in and going to sleep, but he was really just winding up to have a melt-down. I went back in, Daddy left, he tearfully said "Nana please Mommy" and he latched on. He sucked for 30 seconds, said "Nana all gone, " rolled over and went to sleep.

Five minutes later he must've rolled over and stirred and saw I was gone because he started crying and when I got in there he asked for nana and I said "Nana all gone" and he repeated "all gone" and rolled over and went to sleep! Happy as a lark! Bizarre. Maybe this night weaning thing won't be so hard after all?

I expected "all gone" to be something devastating for him, but I suppose that (a) he's used to draining the boobs and them refilling like magic and (b) he's reaching the age where he can't be fagged to get all the hind milk out. In hindsight, "all gone" is a concept he has understood for many months, mostly related to food. If he's hungry in the car and we run out of food and I say "all gone" he takes it well in stride, so I suppose the concept of "all gone" is temporary in his interpretation: he is always satiated before too much longer. I should probably try and remember not to use "all gone" when I mean that something is permanently gone. Hmm.