I know how you feel, especially if you have children who need to go to school the next day. It does get better though, with Mollie first night not to bad, then the next night howling on and off all night. I think we made it worse keep going down to her rather than leave to settle on her own. After 4 days of going up and down to her, we decided to change how we dealt with her in the evening. We used a box that we put in one end of the crate as we thought that maybe the crate was too big and made her feel lonely at night. We then put all her bedding in the box with heat pad and teddy so it was a more snug fit. I placed a ticking clock out side the crate and a large blanket over the top of the crate with one side open to give a cave effect. I also about an hour before bedtime I would play with her to wear her out (I found if i did this too near to bedtime she was still too much on a high to settle). I used to then put her outside and stick her to bed about ten minutes before bedtime and she would settle alot better. If she cried in the night I went down let her outside without saying anything, then put her to bed and ignore her is she started to howl again - after 2 days she was sleeping through from 11pm to 7pm with one trip outside around 3am.
I'm not saying its the right way, but it worked for us (daughter has asthma so Mollie can't sleep upstairs). We will be going through it again in 5 weeks when we get our new puppy, so it hasn't put me off.