I am having a major moral dilemma here! My 6 week old will cry/grizzle for about 4 hours at a time during the evening when I try to put him to sleep. I believe that he is not hungry, windy or wet, just tired. Over the past 6 weeks I have gone into him (almost) straight away to sooth him by rocking, using dummy ect. but he continues to cry, or may only stop very briefly, then start up again. I feel that he is very tired and really needs to sleep but can't "nod off" even though I am tending to him. So, over the past 2 nights I have allowed him to cry (more like scream) for 8 minutes before going into him. Then I go in, give him a cuddle, put him down and leave again. It makes me quite upset to do this but he will fall into a relaxed deep sleep in under 20 minutes if I do, instead of grizzling for 4 hours. He will then sleep for about 4 hours (until next feed). He falls asleep without crying all other times.
So, what do you think I should do - let him cry to allow him to fall to sleep reasonably quickly or go in and comfort him for several hours??? I don't want to cause any psychological damage by letting him cry but nor do I think he should be sleep deprived. I would love your opinions.