The hardest thing ever

So tonight we decided that we would "ferberize" Liam. For those of you who do not know what that means, the Ferber method is a method used to get babies to sleep in their cribs on their own without crutches such as rocking, nursing, or pacifiers. Up until now, Liam has slept in his swing for naps and through the night. With the Ferber method, you basically set up a routine so that the baby knows when it is time for sleep and then you put him down and let him "cry it out". By the end of the week, they should be going to sleep on their own without any crying. So we started our routine with a bath and changing into his pj's and then I fed him. Chris read him a book, we put on a lullaby CD and sang John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy" to him, kissed him goodnight, put him down and turned off the lights. About 10 minutes later is when it started. It was a light crying at first, as if to tell us he was annoyed with being left in this dark room. Then it graduated to a real cry, but we were able to handle that. About a half hour in our child became completely possessed and started to make noises we had never heard come out of him. I went in to let him know we hadn't abandoned him and felt his little cheek drenched with tears. It was horrible. I can see why people put it off, but all the books say that it is easier to get it over with when they are younger and that he will be happier for it. The book didn't lie though. About 50 minutes after the crying had started, it stopped. Our initial reaction was, "Is he still breathing?", but we didn't want to go in right away for fear that we would wake him up. After about 10 minutes of silence, I went in to check on him and he was sleeping soundly. It was almost 10:00 by the time he fell asleep. Once we get the falling asleep thing down, we will work on getting him to bed earlier. It's supposed to be better tomorrow and even better the next day. Let's hope so..