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We review and study the roles of quantum and classical fluctuations in recent cavity-optomechanical experiments which have now reached the quantum regime (mechanical phonon occupancy ≲1) using resolved sideband laser cooling. In particular, both the laser noise heating of the mechanical resonator and the form of the optically transduced mechanical spectra, modified by quantum and classical laser noise squashing, are derived under various measurement conditions. Using this theory, we analyze recent ground-state laser cooling and motional sideband asymmetry experiments with nanoscale optomechanical crystal resonators.