17 weeks - bedtime problems

Cora's sleeping habits changed last weekend... all of a sudden, she won't fall asleep in her crib at night without crying, screaming, and lots of visits from Mom & Dad. On Saturday and Sunday nights, it took 1.5-2hrs (!) for her to fall and stay asleep.

After early morning nursing, Cora sometimes sleeps in our bed for an hour or two.

So of course we've been trying to figure out what is going on.

Even before all of this anguished fussing started, we had been trying to establish a bedtime routine:

bath (if it is a bath day) at 7:30-ish > diaper/pjs/sleepsack > nursing at 8pm > reading a couple books with pacifier > rocking chair/sing a song > into the crib by 9pm

One of her favorite books is still "Hello, Bugs!"

Up until this weekend, this system worked great. She would go down into her crib, look at us for a moment or two, and turn her head toward the wall to drift off. We usually had to visit once or twice to replace her pacifier when she fussed, but within 20 minutes she'd often be asleep. Go to go 'til morning.

Now when we first put her down, she does that usual routine (turn toward the wall, drift off) but then she wakes up after 5 minutes and the escalation from fussing > crying > screaming begins. She has introduced a new cry to her repertoire: the grunt scream. It is gut wrenching to hear.

On Saturday night we thought: maybe she is teething? But there is no evidence of teeth coming up on her gums yet. Maybe she is sick? But she seems fine all the rest of the day. No fever.

On Sunday night we thought: oh god, this is two nights in a row. Is this a new habit forming? WHAT ARE WE DOING WRONG?

We consulted our baby books and determined that we weren't ready to try the "cry it out" method quite yet. (Can I get some opinions on this? Please? Either tell me in the comments here or I'll be calling you in the middle of the night with questions, people.)

So our first experiment to try to fix this issue is to move her bedtime earlier. She has been happy with a 9pm bedtime until this point, but maybe it's too late now? Please please please, let this work.

Since the weekend, we have been moving her bedtime closer to 6pm. On Monday she cried from 7-8pm and I caved and let her fall asleep in my arms on the couch. On Tuesday, she proved that her crib is not the problem by taking two good naps there during the day. That night, I rocked her nearly to the point of sleep and she stayed in her crib with only 40 minutes of crying (with visits from Mom & Dad). Wednesday was my first time out of the house during her bedtime, and Nate said it took about 40 minutes again, but he let her "cry it out" - and it worked. Forty minutes of fussing/crying is better than 2 hours, but...

I will obviously keep you updated on our progress.

Now: share your thoughts on "crying it out"... what age do you do this, if ever? Will it make her hate bedtime? or me?
 

Cora checks out her "jewelry" in the backyard on Monday.