Jessica, I haven't read the replies evrybody else has given you but I jsut wanted to tell you to listen to your insticts. Don't worry about what other people tell you. You know your own child better than anybody else.
They might be right. Your child might take longer to learn how to self settle. But is that really a problem? He will learn it eventually. And it is impossible to say whether it is caused by your settling technique or by his own individual character.
I have heard so many stories of people who used controlled crying/comforting on their children and it didn't lead to any improvement. It only caused very stressed out parents and babies. Others swear by it. You need to do what works for you. Why fix something that isn't broken? If you don't have a problem cuddling him in the middle of the night, then why change a good thing?

I have always picked DD up and now, at 17 months, she goes to sleep on her own most nights (after a quick feed and cuddle) and can resetle herself most times when she wakes during the night. There are times when she can't, but I bet there are other things at work on those nights. Like bad dreams or teething or maybe being too hot/cold. But in the first 6 months of her life she NEVER went to sleep on her own. I fed her to sleep on our bed, then sneaked away quietly. We co-slept at night and during the day she either slept in my bed or in a sling on me. When she woke, I always fed or uddled her back to sleep.
At 6 months I transferred her to a cot in our room because she was crawling and I was scared she'd fall out of bed. She actually did once which was the turning point. She HATED being in her cot unless she was asleep. Until she was 12 months old, I only placed her into the cot once she was asleep and I would pick her up to resettle if she woke up. We still co-slept for part of the night. The theory of settling her by leaving her in the cot and patting her bottom just did not work for us. I actually tried it for a couple of days/nights, but she just got soooooo worked up and I just couldn't handle it. By picking her up, she usually resettled within a couple of minutes.
At 12 months she was driving me crazy by waking up more and more often, so I thought I would try and teach her to go to sleep on her won. And surprise surprise, I didn't have to teach her anything. She just did. She was ready for it and the transition was so easy. I put the cot in her room and there were never any tears involved.

Why did I give you such a detailed description? I just wanted to show you that I did all the "wrong" things. Yet, we got to the same destination in the end. I don't regret having chosen that path. Although, sometimes it did seem harder. But, I did not create a rod for my back. There is no anxiety about sleep time in this house. She actually loves it. When I put the sleeping bag on my bed, she gets excited and tries to put it on herself. No battles. She still comes into our bed between 5 and 6 am where she sleeps til 7-8am. I love being woken up by her kissing me or stroking my face. It just feels so right.
For some, this set up doesn't work. But for us it did.

All the best, Saša