A lesson in patience at 1am

So LC has been having trouble sleeping lately. He goes for a few nights waking up twice a night, to a few nights of sleeping all night, to a few nights of waking up once, and back to a few nights of waking up twice.

And remember the days when he would wake up and I'd feed him and we'd both be tucked back in our crib & bed 15 minutes later.

Well for some reason that has gone out the window.

Granted the feeding comforts and nourishes him, and the rocking and paci soothe him, but for some reason, (usually this happens on his first wakeup of the night), as soon as he is asleep and you lay him down in his crib he wakes up and cries. Like screams bloody murder. I don't know what it is.

So last night at the 12:15 wakeup, J got him up and rocked him (he had gone to bed at 8:30, woke up at 9 with a scream but quickly went back to sleep just rubbing his belly, for an hour...at 1am after trying to put him down for a 2nd time and him still waking and screaming I went in there and took over. I rocked him and put paci in (I really didn't think he was hungry and I was right b/c when I held him he didn't act like he wanted to eat). Then as I went to lay him down, the cries started. I tried rocking again. I set him down again. He cried again. With his eyes closed. My poor sweet baby was so tired he wasn't even opening his eyes. I stood over the crib and rubbed his belly, flipped him over on his belly, rubbed his back, tried to put paci in, he batted it away his little mouth open wide letting out a big cry. I got down on the floor and put my face right up to his face in the crib and told him it was okay, he was just tired, he needed to sleep, Mommy is here. He rolled around for a bit more, cried a bit more, put his own paci in a couple of times, and finally fell into a soft snoring sleep.

Is this 'crying it out'? I don't know. But I knew that he needed me there and I knew that he needed to learn to soothe himself (typically he does this very well), so I don't know if something else is wrong.

I'm trying my best.

My body is tired, my brain is fuzzy, my apartment is still in boxes....I'm trying...my heart hurts when my sweet baby cries and i will do anything in my power to make it stop, even at 1am....