I Am Getting There

So some of my questions have been answered. Do kids need a certain amount of sleep at this age? According to the sleep chart, I found on Parents.com,  most toddlers need 12-14 hours of sleep. Do I need to have a routine and stick to it? This same article says that kids do need a sleep routine.

Should he have a night light? Should he have a sippy when he goes to bed? Should I lay in bed with him till he falls asleep? Should I read to him while he falls asleep? Should I put him back in his own bed if he wakes up?  In the article "Dealing With Late Night Visits from Your Child" from the website babycenter.com, the author Dawn Margolis, gives me the answers to all of these questions. She says that it is okay to let your child have a night light because most toddlers have a fear of the dark. She also says that what he goes to bed with is what he is going to expect when he wakes up in the middle of the night. So if I'm in his bed, reading to him, and he has a sippy cup then that's what he will expect when he wakes up. So I need to start gradually getting rid of all of those bad habits. She also says that I need to be consistent. So if he wakes up in the middle of the night then I need to get my butt out of bed and put him back. She also says that none of this will happen overnight :(, I wish it did, but I should keep working at it and trying.

 Some other questions that have come up in my mind while I have been researching this topic is: Do grow spurts effect a child's sleep habits? Does too much sleep effect their behavior?