Fighting the Bedtime Battle

So, I've been a bad mother and have always gone and picked Sydney up as soon as she cries at night since she was born for two reasons: 1) It just kills me to hear her cry...to the point that I get physically distressed and can't take it and 2) If I don't fix her crying quickly, I cannot go back to sleep and get even less sleep than I already do (which is a really small amount as it is). But, since we're going home this week (YAY!) and I want to be able to spend time with my family and not always be fighting the bedtime battle, I've been working on letting her cry it out a bit and teaching her to put herself to sleep. Instead of letting her scream until she falls asleep, I let her cry for five minutes, then go comfort her and give her back her pacifier and leave the room again. Sometimes it doesn't work for a while, but today at nap time, I only had to go in once and then she went to sleep. And, while it isn't working right now, it's nice to think that maybe, one day, I won't have to rock her to sleep every night, making myself motion sick in the process.