Empty Nesting

Our family events of the last week have passed, and now I'm ready to settle back into some sort of normalcy.  This will be short-lived, however.  We have another significant event coming up, and my ex and I are about to embark on "Empty Nest Syndrome".  Although really, my ex's residence won't be empty, as his significant other has children.  But for me, I will truly have an empty nest.  But even if my ex doesn't have the nest empty, it still isn't the same, since our child isn't there.  I am wondering how we will each handle this significant change.  I'm also wondering how different of an experience this would be based on our genders.  So far we have both cried, so gender doesn't seem to be a factor there.  Of course I haven't yet measured frequency or duration, so perhaps there are some differences there!