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I need help!  My son is 6 1/2 months old and strictly breastfeed (well.. plus veggies and oatmeal).  His sleep is very incosistent.  We usually put him to bed sleepy.. occasionally he's falls sound asleep at his last feeding.  Usual bedtime is 9pm.  We've tried earlier bedtimes and they don't seem to work.  Sometimes he sleeps really well, say till 3,4,5 or even as late as 6am.  Then there's nights were he wakes up at 11pm, 12am or 1am.  If I'm home he nurses and goes right back to sleep, but I work the night shift 4 days per week and when my husband is home, the baby has aweful nights.  He wakes up and won't go back to sleep no matter what my husband tries (aside from going for a car ride).    I don't mind getting up for a few feedings becaue I go back to sleep really easily but my husband not only has a hard time sleeping, but the baby seems to know when I"m not home and is not usually satisfied by a bottle, won't take a pacifier and just cries and cries so my husband is up all night too. Our physician told us to let him cry.  The first night my husband did this the baby screamed from midnight until 3am, then woke up at 5, ate and slept until 830.  The next night he didn't wake up until 230 at which time my husband fed him, and he only woke up again at 6 to eat and then got up for the day at 9am.  Tonight I had off and the baby woke up again at midnight and didn't stop crying until 2 am.  I tried the "Ferber" method where I went in periodically just to reassure him and it seemed like he only cried harder once I left.  At 2 he finally kept a pacifier in and then fell asleep. I felt like by then I should be feeding him since he hadn't eaten in 5 1/2 hours but felt it would defeat the purpose of the last 2 hours of screaming.  My husband needs to sleep at night too when he has him but I feel aweful making him cry, maybe just don't know enough about how to do it.  How long do you let them cry before it's time to cave and try something else?   At some point do we need to try feeding him?  Obviously if he wakes up at 11 or 12 he shouldn't need to eat but after a couple hours of crying I would think maybe he would.   I know he can go a long time without eating because I've seen him sleep for a long time, but I feel so mean.  He's a very good baby and from my Associated Degree Nursing classes I know that this is the age when they develop trust and I'm afraid that letting him cry for so long is going to change his happy nature.  Please help!