Cry baby- day two

Day two of our controlled crying experiment.
We put Aimee down at 8pm, fed and drowsy but not asleep. She cried for about 10 minutes then blissful silence. Cat and I congratulated ourselves for a job well done. Aimee had other plans. At 9.30pm she woke and screamed the house down for one whole hour. We followed out 5,10,15…minute soothing intervals but it was so tough. Every cry, every yell, every scream tore at our hearts. We questioned ourselves at every second. But when she stopped, we looked in and she seemed so peacefully asleep.
We decided that she should still have a midnight top-up feed and I woke her up at midnight. She fussed a bit but fed well. When I put her down, the crying began again. I honestly could not do it anymore and almost at the point where I picked her up, she stopped. It took only ten minutes and she fell back to sleep for 6 hours.
But the instinctive feeling that it is cruel and horrid never leaves our minds. A scan on the internet this morning was didn’t help the guilt with endless debates by ‘experts’ both pro and against the practice. This morning she seemed a bit clingy and distracted but still smiley and ‘chatty’. I hope we have not done any lasting mental harm. I am reserving judgement at the moment about whether it is working. Tonight we’ll prepare for the same. Consistency is the key for any technique, we can’t back out now.