How to get a baby to stay asleep at night...that is the question!

Well,I have very strong willed kids. You always hear the just let them cry themselves back to sleep. Or go in and pat them, but don't pick them up, or if you pick them up just rock them, but don't feed them. This does not work for me. It makes my babies SO MAD! I have a hard time letting them cry back to sleep because my crazy Carson. When he was 4 months he go so mad that he fliped himself over the side of the crib, onto the hard wood floor. He did this a couple times. He's a strong kid. I also have a hard time because I can't sleep if I hear them cry. I just lay in bed going crazy. I'd much rather just get up feed them and be able to get back to sleep.

My babies are all great sleepers when they are newborn and usually sleeping through the night at about 4-6 weeks. That is until they get to be about 4-6 months. Until recently Zac was waking up every 1-2 hours. Well, I like to have the fan blow on me in the night, but our ceiling fan here only works with the lights on, so we put a little noisy fan in our room and all of a sudden Zach was only waking up 1-2 times a night and ocasionally sleeping through the night (no, he does not sleep in our room). What I think is happening is that he wakes up, but unless he is really mad and screams loud I sleep through it because of the sound of the fan. Otherwise if he really doesn't need anything he fusses and goes back to sleep on his own. I think the fan may just help me sleep deeper, so I only hear him when I'm in a lighter sleep. Or a mix of the two. I don't know, but it is really nice to be getting a good amount of sleep again. Oh, by the way we don't use a baby monitor because they keep Karl awake, so he banned them after Lydea.