Self soothing>?

My miserable Friday night included me rocking, bouncing, swinging, walking, and nursing Gracie from 9:00 p.m. until midnight to get her to sleep. That's right...she will fight me to the death. I'll admit, she has an endurance that many a man would envy. I was beat. My body was sore from the combined bounce/sway/walk/pat her on the back manuever that seemed to pacify her. My throat was sore from the countless verses of "Hush little baby." And she was still going strong. Her lungs are great, meanwhile, I was puffing away on my inhaler. I'm telling you, this kid is made of some tough stuff. I think I have met my match.
How can someone so little invoke such fear in me? Anyways, after that little nightmare, I decided we needed a change. I am now trying the self-soothe method. This has been miserable for all of us, but I am hoping it will allow her to get better naps and better nighttime sleep.
Like I said earlier in this blog, she was sleeping through the night like a champ! Our real trouble was getting her to sleep. So last night we decided to put her on a routine and help her cry it out!
This is a controversial issue apparently, but I can only do what I think is best for Gracie.
We gave her a bath, read her a book, fed her, and then swaddled her and put her in her crib awake. The idea is to let her self-soothe and check on her every 10 mins.It took her an hour and 20 mins to finally go to sleep. I had decided that if she was still crying at an hour and a half I would just rock her to sleep again! This was the longest hour and 20 mins of my life! I really thought I was the worst mother ever during this process, however, my friend Summer had great success and we facebook messaged each other the whole time. She said it took her daughter 3 days and then she never cried when put down to sleep after that. That is my hope!
I just put Gracie down for a nap (her first nap was at church today) and it only took her about 15 minutes to fall asleep this time. YAY!!! She is used to being held all the time and is seriously protesting. I worry too much that she won't feel loved if I don't give her all of my attention but I feel certain that she knows she is a loved baby. When I got her up this morning, she was smiling and cooing. My what short memories babies have!
By the way, she slept 9 hours last night.