Silent NIght? Not here...

it's 3:20. sorry for any grammatical errors or typing mistakes. i am writing in the dark. i am awake but don't want to fully admit that i am awake by turning on the lights. the main reason i am writing is to pass the time while i listen to my eight and a half month old cry and cry and cry- aka. while i teach him to sleep through the night. oh how this sucks.
life's been pretty hectic lately which is why it's been so long since i have written. but there have been many posts i have thought of writing, that never had a second to be written. although had i written every time topher woke me up in the middle of the night, my blog would be busting at the seams.
i always have so many excuses as to why topher is awake at 3, or 1, or even 12am. the most common one being that he's hungry. so i did the whole 'stuff him like a fattened calf ready for the kill' before bed, which included cereal, vegetables, and then a bottle of formula in him room. i am still breastfeeding, but i thought he wasn't getting enough before going to sleep 'for the night'. but then he would still wake up at 3ish, with a sopping wet diaper. so then i would have to get him cause he was so wet and i needed to change his diaper and feed him again.
sometimes this led him to sleep till 7. or even 8. but sometimes only till 5. which is NOT ok.
every mom i have talked to says that he should be able to sleep through the night and that i should let him cry it out, or at least not feed him at all through the night. so yesterday i let him cry for about 15 t o 20 minutes and then i gave him a bottle with water. he drank that puppy down! i rocked him for a while, then set him down as gently as all get out- but of course he woke up and started screaming as i was bolting out the room. he fortunately only cried for three more minutes, but at 3am, 3 minutes feels like an eternity.
so now topher's been crying for about thirty minutes. should i get him? should i not? i am so tired- of listening to him cry that is. no pain no gain, right? just a couple of really bad nights = a lifetime of peaceful nights?... i'll let you know