Rockabye Baby

Tonight was my first attempt at not rocking my son to sleep.  Very ambitious, don't you think?  I LOVE rocking him to sleep, but I don't want him to get used to it and not be able to fall asleep without me rocking him every night.  Needless to say, it was not a success.  My son is not a crier.  He very rarely cries, but when he does, it is the saddest, most heartbreaking cry you'll ever hear.  After putting him in his crib tonight, he immediately started crying.  I thought at first it wasn't so bad and that he'd calm down and fall asleep in a few minutes.  Apparently, I thought wrong.  I couldn't stand to hear him cry, so after a LONG 5 minutes of  crying torture, I went in and tried to rub his back while he laid in his crib.  But he kept getting up and putting his arms out for me to pick him up.  I gave in.  I WANT to rock him to sleep, so I gave in much quicker than I would have if I didn't enjoy it as much. I don't get a lot of time with him throughout the weekdays since I work full time and my commute is long, so any chance I get to see him, hold him, read to him, play with him, or rock him, I take it.  I squeeze every moment out of every minute I'm with him during the week and on the weekends I get to spend all day with him, so I cherish my weekends.  My husband and I try to just cherish every moment we have with him because he is so much fun to be around.  He's just such a cute little joyous boy.  Which is why my attempt at being ambitious and trying to put him to sleep without rocking him failed.  But it was only my first attempt.  My husband and I decided that we will start with naps and work our way to bedtime.  My ambition is still there.  I won't give up.  But I also can't stand to listen to my son cry.  So we'll work out a way of making this happen without the tears (hopefully), and then we can all go to bed in peace.  Has anyone gone through a similar issue with their little one?  How did you make it work?  Was your child easy to put to bed without being rocked to sleep?