Who ignores a hysterically crying baby??!!

I DO! That's who!! Uggh last night was horrible!! First of all, I should've minded my first instinct (at 12:30am) which was to ignore her cries and let her cry it out. But when I was listening to her cries, she at one point said, "Wo Ai Ne, Mama..." (That would be "I love you, Mama", for those reading that are not familiar with the Chinese language...) So, obviously my heart sank and I had to go in. Plus, I was not sure if she maybe had pooped. Considering, once when she was very young and we were in the midst of CIO training, she had cried out in her sleep and I ignored only to walk in in the morning to find D had puked. Whoops.
I went in, picked her up. Held her for a bit and then put her back down and told her she had to go back to sleep. I told her I would sleep next to her on the floor. She eventually fell asleep and I left the room. 10 minutes later, she's screaming bloody murder again! Uggh. So, back I go, into her room dragging my comforter with me. This time, though I change her diaper since I'm now thinking maybe her wet diaper is bothering her. This time, she is not having ANY of the "I'll be sleeping next to you on the floor." She is screaming at the top of her lungs, clearly very distraught and disappointed that I won't pick her up. Finally, I pick her up to see if she will actually sleep next to me on the floor.
The answer to that (which I knew) was obviously, No. And, she got up with a big smile like "Hey, it's morning! Let's go play!" Uhh, no. It was about 2 in the morning. Finally, I bucked up, put her in her crib and walked out the door. Ready to just let her cry it out. I HAD to! I know she does not actually sleep if I am holding her or even if I am sleeping next to her. She somehow manages to sleep with one eye open if I am anywhere near.
This time...this time when I leave the room she is hysterical! I mean, HYSTERICAL and crying and screaming "Where are you Momma?!! Where are you Momma?!" Oh gawd, the torture.
Thankfully, it is G who holds his wits about him and very sternly just states, "She needs to sleep. She needs to just cry it out." So...we wait and we wait and she cries and she cries. I finally feel like she has calmed down and has fallen asleep and I finally fall asleep around 3am. G informs me that he continued to hear her cries (even when she wasn't crying) for the rest of the morning. But, that she actually did give one last cry around 3:15am and then fell asleep for good.
WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT??! Anyhoo..poor girl had the worst puffy cry eyes in the morning. And, I think she held a bit of a grudge. I looked at her this morning and said, "Hi baby. You look very tired..." She looked at me with a bit of a "glare" (maybe daggers?) and turned her entire body away from me. Whoops again. What is a mother to do?