The first 5 weeks i co-slept and on-demand fed DD, if she cried she got booby. Once she got to seeming really tired but unable to settle without masses of help we decided to try something different. We taught DD to re-settle herself by modified CC - at bedtime (8pm) she had been bathed, fed, story read etc. I would put her down, she would howl, I would pick her up, rock and sing to her until she fell asleep and then put her down again. A few weeks later i would sit by the cot, with my hands on her, stroking, patting, whatever, and sing to her softly until she nodded off. When she got a bit bigger (4 months or so) i would just sit and sing (not touching her). By the time she was 4 months old she no longer cried at bedtime and if she did a brief visit from mummy to reassure her that i still existed was all she needed. She slept through from midnight to 5am by 5 months and slept 8pm-8am as soon as i weaned her off the breast (7 months, due to let-down/supply problems and underlying health problems for me (thyroid related)) as she liked to wake for the booby but wasn't bothered to wake for a bottle that early.

I think every parent should use what they think is best for their child, i'm a single parent and would have gone nuts with no sleep, and i know CC works for a lot of people. For myself i felt that it was important DD had the confidence to be able to settle herself, but if i left DD to cry it out, even for a few minutes, the message i was giving was "Go ahead and cry. No one is coming. No one cares." and it makes ME cry thinking that. A gentler way worked for us.

HTH