Maybe crying isn't so bad

Ray and I finally decided to give the 'cry it out method' a real try.
Evan wasn't awful but he hasn't slept through the night in a while and
he seemed to be back sliding a little. He'd also wake up in the middle
of the night and not always want to go back to sleep. So we'd end up
rocking him a little longer and getting annoyed when we'd lay him down
and he'd roll over and get on his hands and knees and then stand up
and want to be picked up. Ray even brought him to bed one night. I
picked him up and brought him back to his room. I told Ray we'd just
be trading one problem for another if we kept falling back to that.
I had taken Evan to the pediatrician and she confirmed that he should
be big enough and old enough to sleep through the night. She also said
that it might be hard but that it was probably better to let him cry.
So two nights ago, I decided that we needed to do something. I rocked
him for two minutes and then put him in his crib, told him "night,
night", and sat in the rocking chair and waited. His door was shut to
keep the dogs out so his room was dark. I don't think he could see me.
He started screaming and crying. Ray couldn't handle it so at some
point he went down stairs to play his video game online with Dan. Ev
screamed for a few minutes and walked around his crib. I was going to
give him five minutes but he hit his head and got even more upset, of
course. So I went over and soothed him. I don't think I picked him up
because he was quieting down. So I went and sat back in the rocking
chair again. He was asleep with in five minutes. The next day we did
the same thing during his nap only I left his room this time and shut
the door. I took about 8 minutes again. Last night he cried for two
minutes where he was really upset and then he went to sleep. And the
most amazing thing, he slept through the night for the first time in
weeks! And he even slept until 7:00 am. He's been getting up before
six lately. So I put him down for both naps today and it took him
about 4 min both times. He only sounded really upset for about 30
seconds to a minute. It's hard to hear him cry each time and when it
gets close I dread having to put him down for a nap. I also feel like
a little bit of a bad mom for letting him be upset without doing
anything. But I think it's important for him. I think he needs to know
he can help himself. And it looks like it's already helping him sleep
at night. We're hoping that eventually he'll go to sleep without the
crying.