Hi, I've been away, but am now back! My ds was only about 3 months when we did it. Before that, he would sleep quite a long time, but wouldn't go to sleep until about 11 at night, we would spend the whole evening trying to get him to go to sleep, even though he had been bathed, fed etc.
We were finding it impossible to do anything in the evenings, even cooking as meal was a challenge, so we decided to give it a go.
We did it by giving him a bath, then feeding him quietly in his room, then putting him to bed. He cried to begin with, but I went back in, every minute or two to start with, and then a bit less often, but didn't pick him up, just spoke softly, telling him it was sleep time. The first night it took about half an hour before he fell asleep. I was really worried then that he would wake up again after about an hour, but he didn't, he carried on sleeping. I then went in at about 10 to give him another feed, as he still needed it at that age. I fed him, and changed his nappy, then put him back down, and amazingly he went straight back to sleep.
The second night it took about 20 minutes for him to go to sleep, the third night about 10 minutes, and after that he would fall asleep almost as soon as we had put him down. He didn't tend to wake later in the
nights either.
Subsequently we only had problems if he was ill. Then the routine might get lost a bit, which inevitably happens if he can't sleep because he's ill. Then, once he was better, we might have to do the CC for a night or two, to get him back on track. He has always been a great sleeper since then, and loves his bed. I hope this helps. Like you, there is no way I could have done co-sleeping, as I find it really hard to sleep with someone else wriggling in the bed. In fact, it's hard enough sleeping with dh in the bed - I always sleep much better when he's away, as he's quite a restless sleeper, whereas I'm a log!