sleep training?

Our little Olsen is not the best sleeper. He's pretty bad about taking naps, except for in my arms. The instant I try to put the little guy down, he awakens, usually in a sad, indignant manner. Recently, I thought it would be cool if Olsen would sleep in his crib at night in his room, mostly because his crib looks really comfy to me and I selfishly enjoy the idea of having our room to ourselves again. 

Olsen can't really fall asleep on his own yet. He usually likes to nurse to sleep or be rocked to sleep. The past few days, I have nursed him to sleep and then I carefully put him in his crib. He sleeps for about 20 minutes and awakens with some tears. So, I nurse him again and put him back in his crib where he will sleep for an hour. Then he awakens. Then I move him back into our room. Last night, he actually slept for about 6 hours after being moved back into our room, so I was glad about that. Sometimes he wakes up a lot and so we end up co-sleeping with him so that he can basically be attached to the boob all night.

So that has been my method of sleep training. not very effective really, but I don't want to do the whole cry it out method, because I feel that sometimes as Americans we really stress the importance of independence a little too early in life. Olsen is not even 6 months old yet, and I don't think he's meant to be able to do things independently. He needs me to help him sleep and that is one of my jobs as his mom. After all, the way I see it is that as his mom I actually have very few years where I will be the most important person to him, because nobody likes a momma's boy after a certain age. So I will relish these moments when it is only me that Olsen wants and needs. :)