Do you let your babies cry?

Just wondering if anyone lets their babies cry (really cry) when its sleep time. I have become such a walkover. Paige would get put down and left to go to it and cry and she would be sound asleep in about 5 mins. Blake screams and screams and screams like he has been left forever!!! Makes me so sad!!! I have ended up at nearly all of his sleeps rocking him to sleep????

Cameron, will often scream his head off when we put him down at night. He can do it right through dinner, we leave him for a while and sometimes he gets it out of his system and goes to sleep, if he doesn't we go down after about 10mins and give him is dummy or put his mobile on but we never pick him up. One thing I have just discovered is rubbing the bridge of his nose and forehead puts him to sleep really well, I just lean over the cot and do it.   

I let Olivia cry, but I made the mistake of looking at that kellymom site which said that letting babies cry it out can actually make them and you produce a chemical called cortisol which can make heart conditions and high stress for baby later on in life and PND for the mum. I think there are some times in my life when I end up with way too much knowledge about a certain topic, so I actually chose to ignore it. There are friends of mine that were sick when they were babies and would have probably cried more than Olivia does and they are healthy members of the community.
If she cries for longer that 15 mins during the day I'll go and get her, but because I have let her cry out at day one, her crying for 15 mins is a pretty rare occurance, she usually only grizzles for between 30secs to a couple of mins then either goes to sleep or talks to herself.

I was told to do the double time thing. Go in and see them after 5 minutes and rub their tummy and say its ok and go to sleep. After 10 minutes if still crying do the same but don't tallk. Then wait 20 minutes and do the same again and no talking. If after another 20 minutes they are still crying get them up, have a feed, nappy change if needed and then back to bed and you should only need to do the first 5 and then the next 10 minutes and they are asleep. I did this with Andrew and he quite often was asleep after the second time I went in to see him and very rarely had to go in after the second 20 minutes.

Jax and I were talking about this yesterday. We unfortunately have gone to her pretty much as soon as she starts crying because of all the trouble we have had with her gas, then she was unwell for a few weeks too. But now we are trying to let her cry it out, started on Monday night (after going to a Plunket Settling Group) and I don't know who was crying more in the end, her or me!
But I have to learn to tough it out and stay away for at least 3 mins (we're starting small) then go in pat er, give her the dummy then walk out. Wish me luck!

We never let Charlotte cry (let me re-phrase that, I never did- much to DHs disgust...) I just couldn't cope with it. We rocked her to sleep and then put her in her cot. If she woke at all (and didn't need feeding) we either rubbed her tummy till she dropped off or picked her up and cuddled her to sleep again if she didn't stop crying pretty quickly.
We got the whole 'you're creating a rod for your own back' speech from EVERYONE, all the time. She has always been a fantastic sleeper- at 2 1/2 she now sleeps from 7pm-7am every night and naps for 3 hours every afternoon. She has no sleep issues at all and we have no trouble getting her down.
I think its really important to do what you feel comfortable with- I saw so many other Mums distraught because they had to listen to their babies scream themselves to sleep because everyone told them thats what they had to do so they didn't have issues later- they had huge guilt about it and now have toddlers who scream themselves to sleep.
Of course it can go either way- alot of people who do the controlled crying find it really good and it works well for them and alot of people who do what we did wind up with clingy difficult sleepers. I think it really depends on your baby and what you are comfortable with.

Oh My ...I hate this :o(

To me it seems like Blake is in pain and really distressed. And because I know he has reflux and colic I reckon he is (maybe hes not) and I just feel awful letting him cry to sleep. The plunket today said I needed to start trying to do it. I dont know what a distressed cry is and whats not really as Paige was such a different baby. Sleeping/everything was easy with her!!
Blake cries so much he starts choking and if I do pick him up he sobs and sobs for minutes afterwards trying to calm himself down.

???

I know what you mean it is awful letting them cry - but it does pay off - I had a week of Nerissa waking during her afternoon sleep and it taking her ages to cry herself back to sleep. Someone once said that "you are not making them cry you are letting them cry" i used to say this over and over to myself. It does pay off after a week of crying (it got less each day) I have had no problems with her sleeping lately....