Crying it out...

Well we decided it was finally time to let Leo cry it out and fall asleep on his own. For the past 7 months we have bounced and rocked him for 5-40 minutes to get him to fall asleep. I have had to do the bounce/rock routine for every nap and bedtime since he was born. He is now 19 pounds. My back hurts. I am tired. He needs to learn how to put himself to sleep. We didn't have a lot going on this weekend so we decided it was a good time to "teach" Leo how to sleep. After an hour and 40 minutes of crying last night, he finally fell asleep on his own. We went in every 10-15 minutes to re-assure him we were still around. IT WAS AWFUL! He usually is not the type of kid who cries unless something is wrong so to listen to him scream for that long was horrible. But it did feel great when the crying stopped and he fell asleep. He slept through the night and got up at 6:15 this morning! Today we tried to get him to fall asleep on his own for naps but it didn't go as well. This morning he fell asleep with a little help after 45 minutes and this afternoon I had to rock him after an hour of screaming. He got so worked up and overtired that he couldn't do it on his own. Tonight he was so tired that he fell asleep eating so we will see what happens when he wakes up! Hopefully he will sleep through the night again. I am not sure what we are going to do for naps tomorrow. We might wait until the night routine is established and then try to conquer the naps. I think this is the hardest thing we have had to do since he was born. I feel like such a bad mom knowing that if I go in there and hold him he will stop crying. I know it is important for him to learn to sleep on his own but it's hard to get there!!! I wish I had started this with him when he was 7 weeks old and not 7 months old. Things will be different witbh baby number 2! (No, I am not making any announcements!) Wish us luck! We would love to hear if you have any advice!!!