I'm having flashbacks reading your post. I have three kids and all of them were fussy. With the first I cried as much as she did. The only time she didn't fuss was when she slept in my arms, in the swing, or on a walk in the stroller. I felt like I was constantly having to do something to make that baby happy. My second was the same, but quite as bad. The third started out really good and I was breathing a sigh of relief when he started.
If I'm in a store and I hear a baby cry I will automatically start to bounce back and forward like I'm soothing that baby. I even had to rock back and forth when I watched tv with the oldest.
My MIL figured out a technique with the youngest that worked for him, but was ohhhh so much work and not particularly fun at 2am in the morning. But we would hold him really close to our chest and support his head with our hands so it didn't move and then gently bounced up and down alternating from one foot to the other.....looked a lot like in indian rain dance you would see in old cowboy movies. It worked for him.
I think my kids were all just really gassy...there is a running joke in my extended family about all the hot air all of us produce.....poor things were in pain all the time. Didn't matter what I ate (tried to eliminate everything from my diet until I was practically on bread and water), but nothing helped. I tried pro-biotics. I tried soy formula (though I was breast feeding). They were just fussy.
I learned to live with it. And they all outgrew it by the time they were about four or five months old. Once they started to roll around they seemed to be happier. They are all really happy kids now. And I enjoyed them so much as they got older that I'm thinking of having another at 42 years old.
It will pass and later it will be a joke. And I do believe you have fairy tale images that are going to ruin your experience as a mother if you don't get them out of your head. Kids cry and some cry a lot. Doesn't mean you are necessarily doing anything wrong. When they cry check their diaper and their clothes, think if they might be hungry or sleepy and if all that's a negative, then just bounce them around.
So a swing doesn't work? Walking outside in the fresh air doesn't work? I would take my oldest outside in February in a snowsuit, propped up with blankets and a blanket over the top to screen from the wind. Her little face would get all pink, but she would smile from ear to ear. And that was before she could even sit up. She just loved being outside no matter how cold it was. Whatever worked to make her stop crying.
She's not a fussy child now and I don't tolerate whiney behavior because she knows better now (she's six).
It will pass don't worry.