Does crying count when it comes to first words?

At our doctor's appointment, I had asked the nurse about Maddie's sleeping problems and she gave me the answer I knew but dreaded. The best solution for Maddie's desire to avoid daytime sleep at all costs is to let her cry it out. She very sweetly offered me all the support she could, telling me that letting her cry it out didn't make me a bad mom, etc...

Given my work schedule, I was a little afraid to try this -- I know stability of schedule is key. But it seems that Maddie is doing better in the morning, and my Mom and Sarah have both been able to put her in her crib and have her sleep at least for a little bit. So I decided to try the cry-it-out technique for the afternoon nap -- her big nap of the day. Yesterday as soon as she started rubbing her eyes, I whisked her off to her crib, got her settled, played her little musical thing (activity thing? whatever that's called?) and then left the room. She babbled for a while and then the music stopped, so she babbled louder. Then she started crying. I followed the nurse's advice and restrained myself but it's pretty gosh-darn hard when your daughter actually cries by screaming "Maaaaaaaaaaa, Maaaaaaaa!" I mean come on, does she do this on purpose?

I managed to hold out for almost an hour. I know it's for her own good, but I just can't do this cold turkey. We're going to have to try to do this a little differently. The new plan is I'm going to try to get Maddie to sleep then put her down in her crib, and when she wakes up (which she will because she only catnaps in her crib) I'm going to let her try to settle herself. In other words as, once that girl gets into the crib she's in there for at least 1 hour. Hopefully, I can do a little better that way. Ugh. Motherhood is rough. I should just "babysit" like her dad does.