Are we making progress???

For about a week now we have been putting Nathaniel in his bed while he is still awake and trying to get him to fall asleep on his own. This is not easy! We let him cry for a few minutes (15)and then go in calm him down before we lay him down again on his own. I've read about this in books and heard other people say it works but that first night is really really tough. I kept sending Ken to go check on him since he wouldn't let me go upstairs. Throughout the week we've slowly worked our way down from 15 to about 5 minutes of crying. Last night Ken put him down and he cried on the way up the stairs but once he was in his bed he went right to sleep! This morning I had a similar thing happen with both his 8:30 and 12:30 naps! He was rubbing his eyes a little so I put him in his bed and he just went right to sleep. Could we be making progress???