BabyMama - congrats on your new arrival!
It's totally normal for babies to need help with settling. Are you an ABA member? The latest essence mag has a great article on this - did you know that around a third of children still wake in the night and need help to settle up to the age of 4?
DS now goes to bed a very happy little man - no tears, no tantrums, he actually looks forward to bedtime - and yes, he goes to sleep on his own and usually sleeps through. It took a lot of time and effort, but we helped him to learn to soothe himself. Gentle parenting doesn't make your baby a bad sleeper. Your baby will either be good or bad, there's not much you can do about that. If you want you can ignore him and he'll learn to give up and not cry for you. That might lead to him sleeping 'better', it may not fit in with your long term goals as a parent, however.
Give your baby what he needs, and it will all work out in the long run.
Something I try to remember amid the sleeplessness - I do not judge myself on how my baby sleeps. My goal as a parent is to raise a healthy, sensitive, considerate, well-adjusted adult, who is a productive member of socieity, and who, ultimately, will be a good parent to their children. How important is sleeping through/self settling is achieving this....? Doesn't even rate does it? (Don't get me wrong, I'd like to sleep more...)