Unable to sleep alone (19 mos)

[bliss]

Ok, I have put up with this for so long, and I feel like it's finally time to change our sleeping situation - Turkeybird, 19 mos. is unable to sleep without me holding him. Not sleeping with him, not in the same bed, but holding. Our sleep (bed/nap time) ritual is to sit in the LazyBoy rocker, sing "I Will Sail My Vessel", and nurse/go back and forth between nurse and binky. This can take 2 minutes, it can take 10. Then I have to stay in the chair with him until he is really hard asleep, at which point I can transfer us to the bed. If I kick a toy, or the dog barks, or a car drives by outside (basically any noise at all) he is back up and it's back to the chair. If at any time my arm comes out from underneath him in the night, he is up and it is back to the chair. I tried the NCSS around 12 mos with NO luck. . .it seemed/seems he just sleeps so lightly - is this something I can help him grow out of? Or am I doomed to years of holding someone on my lap for hours in the afternoon and all night long?
Also forgot to add - ds has never been able to sleep in the bed with dh, so I have not slept in the same bed as my husband for 19 mos. Getting old. :/

[MarynMunchkins]

Do you have a white noise machine? I wonder if getting him used to some noise would help at all...:think

[MomToDM]

My ds was/is the same way. We have worked really hard to change it, and it will go well for awhile then something changes and we're back to square one. He is 29 months btw. It has gotten better, but its been really hard. He still requires a lot of work to go to sleep most nights and will only sleep by himself for a couple of hours in his bed. We did NCSS too and it worked for awhile... I don't really have any advice, just :hug. I'm sure it will be outgrown eventually, I hope. lol