Cry it out

Tonight, we are going to really put a focus on a new attempt to teach Amelia to put herself to sleep. Until recently, we have had a pretty standard bedtime ritual... a nice warm bath, a delicious bottle of the finest Similac, and softly rocking to a soothing compilation of slow jams. This has worked great to put her to sleep. Unfortunately, when she thinks it would be a good idea to wake up around 3a.m., she does not know how to go BACK to sleep. She's likely thinking she could go for a snack and/or trying to figure out who the hell turned off her Jack Johnson. So, we are adapting a new philosophy of putting her to bed in a manner that she can recreate in order to put herself back down - no rocking chair, no music, no frills. She didn't put up much of a fight tonight despite sleeping 6 hours at daycare (which deserves its own post. Are we really paying the equivalent of a second mortgage for her to sleep 75% of the day? How about a little mental stimulation, please?!?). I am curious to see how this philosophy translates over to the middle of the night in the short run. I think eventually she will learn and it will be great. However, I am expecting many struggles in a battle of wills for the first few nights. How long will she cry before giving up? How long can we manage to listen to her without it breaking our hearts and us giving in? My initial guess is that she can go mcuh longer than we can.