I agree with this. My nearly 7 year old still sometimes wants one of us to lay with him until he goes to sleep. Honestly, I have NOTHING better to do than be there for my kids, and Gods help me if I ever think I do have something better to do. We sleep with the youngest in bed with us most nights or one sleeps with the oldest and one with the youngest. We're lucky that our oldest has a full-sized bed.

Granted there are times when I wish one or the other (I have a nearly one year old, too) wasn't being so demanding, but I have a feeling there will be a day sooner than I like when I wish my eldest would ask me to crawl into bed with him or that my youngest still sat on my hip with a deathgrip on my hair and shirt. It's hard to be rational when you're tired and if no one is being hurt or deranged, whatever works for everyone just plain works. What we do might not work for everyone, but it does work for us. Best of luck!!

BB!
~Jeannie

we tried the CIO approach at around 15 months, when my son let me go to bed one night at 2 and got me up FOR THE DAY at 4. i was broken, and i went and bought a stack of books on sleeping thru the night. that night, he cried for a total of 30 minutes (with us going in and soothing him at specified intervals). smooth sailing for the most part since.
before that, tho.......he slept through the night off and on right from birth. we'd have a few weeks of peace, then a few months of chaos and eating around the clock, then easy nights again, then not.....you get the idea. infants don't have desires so much as they have NEEDS and if your widget NEEDS food and mommy at this point, just roll with it. this will not last. i promise.

I took my 6 month old to the doctor on Monday for her well baby checkup and the doctor told me to try to let her be for a few minutes it doesn't have to be very long, but just see if she will settle herself, normally she would wake up at about 4 am every morning and would eat. I thought that was pretty normal and it worked for us, but I need my sleep. So on Monday night we laid her down and when I woke and looked at the clock it was almost 8 am, she didn't even stir once all night long, she must have listened to the doctor. Now if I can only get my husband on board for giving her just a few moments and get him to stop playing with her at 5 am we will be just fine.
Thats my story, You have to make your own, do what ever makes you and yours happiest, regardless of what other people say. Here's an idea, when someone tries to give you unsolicited advise say something like this, "You would think that in this day and age that people would stop telling me how to raise my child, but I guess not." And in your head, just say "I'll take your unsolicited advise and shove it up my butt for all the good it is gonna do me."

yep, teething, a stimulating day, you name it and it will make it difficult for some babies to sleep... ok, most babies. adults too; if you've had an exciting day and your brain won't shut off, it may be difficult for you to sleep through the night too. My little guy slept through the night starting around 12 weeks. then the teeth started coming through at 3 1/2 months. now we occasionally get a full 6 hours, but he's working very hard on these teeth. he''ll be 9 months next week and i'm sure he's working on another tooth-his 9th tooth-given his sleep patterns (and all the other clues like extra chewing, etc.). I can imagine that if I were in that much pain, I'd have trouble sleeping too (his come in pairs and then quickly starts working on the next).

our baby sleeps in our bed with us and once in a while i'll try patting/rubbing his back before nursing him, but that works so infrequently that I figure we'll all get more sleep if I roll over, nurse him and we all fall back asleep. a friend of mine keeps trying to convince me that her way is the best way (let the baby cry a little or the whole time husband walks baby until he/she sleeps), but i just don't feel that;s for us. she and plenty of literature says they will "never" learn to sleep on their own if you don't teach them, but I really feel it will come naturally, especially when he's _not_a_baby and not in so much pain. if he's 20 and still needs Mom to sleep, then I'd say there's a problem. :) for now, I agree that babies have needs to be met, not demands or simply "wants".

In any case, I think it is important to remember that you are not a failure, a bad parent or any of the other judgements people love to throw out if your baby does not sleep through the night. that's such a frequent question, it seems people are competing. So strange! Just nurture and follow what seems best to you.