Well, here is my take on it. I have only read the last two posts.
I know that many people say to rock, walk and pat your baby to sleep. I did that will my first child, and it was exremely frustrating. Not to mention that it just didn't produce what I was hoping for. she would fight it all the way. (she still has a hard time going to sleep. She is 12.)Realizing after the fact that it created a monster so to speak, I changed my tactics with the next child.
My second and third child I put down in their beds when it was time to sleep. They have no problems going to sleep to this day(they are 6 and 8.) All babies will cry when you lay them down to sleep. That is NORMAL. In fact it would be abnormal if they didn't. They have a need. The need is to sleep. They will cry from the moment they give you the signal cry (it's time for me to sleep) until sleep state occurs. It doesn't mean they need stimulation, they are not crying for that.(Think about how you would feel when you've been up for 24 hours- how agonizing it is, how the ONLY thing you would desire is sleep. You don't desire personal touch, you frantically HAVE to have sleep.) That's how it is with them. They must have that sleep, and have it frequently, because they do their growing during sleep. They grow more and faster in the first 6 months than any other time in their life. You'll notice a new baby might stay awake only 15 minutes at a time. By the time they are 6 months, they should only be awake an hour and a half or up to two hours between afternoon naps.
It is the parents who have a hard time with it, with allowing the child to cry. Once you realize that they are simply crying because they have a sleep need that must be met, you will not have so much of a problem allowing them to continue the "need" cry until that happens. Give them 5- 10 minutes, and they will fall asleep. Rocking, patting, walking, etc, stimulates them. They eventually do fall asleep, but it is from exaustion. A baby continuing in an exausted state, will start to sleep less and cry more. In fact, crying will become louder, longer and like a pain or distress cry.
Keeping track of their wake, sleep, and feeding schedule in a diary allowed me to meet their needs. It is VERY easy to lose track of time. For example, if the baby starts cring, and I look in the log, I can see that she ate an hour ago but she is an half hour overdue for her nap (keeping a log of natural sleep patterns from infancy will show you her natural sleep need.)So viola, I know that it is a sleep need cry. She doesn't have to get frantic, because I meet the need. I put her down, and she continues to cry until the "sleep state" is accomplished.
The reason your baby doesn't cry when you lay her down in the early morning is she is reaching sleep state immediately. She is reaching sleep state quickly because she is well rested from sleeping all night. The more they sleep, the more they will sleep and the better they will sleep.
ps..I think reflux and GERD are a diferent issue than colic. I think Colic occurs when the child is crying excessively because the correct "need" is not being met.
Reflux and Gerd are usually food allergies. Milk intolerance being one, but a big culprit ofter overlooked is wheat gluten. (not just in breads, it is added to most processed foods,processed meats, ice cream,condiments,dried fruit, gum and alcohol,spices, rice milk using barley enzymes, and some infant formulas)
Drink more water if you need to increase your milk, please don't formula supplement.That's not going to help things. Your body will quickly adjust to your infants milk needs.