First change to night schedule? (1 yr old with sleep issues)

[nd01]

I need some advice from experienced mamas! My 1 yr old currently does not sleep well at all - he wakes 5 - 6 times a night and I nurse him to go back down (nothing else seems to work). He starts the night in the crib and then we bring him in our bed when he first wakes (usually 2 hours after he goes down). So we we're working on improving his and my sleep.

We tried Dr. Jay Gordon's method of nightweaning (pulling him off the breast early and then eventually not having him nurse at all) but we didn't get through five days because he was so upset (and I don't really need to nightwean - I just need him to wake up only 1 - 2 times a night).

I am wondering if our first step should be:
1) Getting him to go to sleep in his dad's arms, not nursing (I hear this helps sometimes as he doesn't wake up and get upset that my boob has disappeared)
or
2) Nurse him to sleep to avoid the bedtime struggle but try to eliminate or minimize nursing in the nightime so he eventually sleeps longer blocks.

Or any other great tips??? He is a light sleeper but really loves close contact so it is a bad combination because there doesn't seem to be an ideal solution (and our house set up does not allow for multiple mattresses on the ground or crib side-carring).

Thanks! And also thanks to everyone who posts here - I don't post a lot but I read a lot and even just reading that someone else is in the same boat is very nice.

[Beauchamp]

Well, I am in almost EXACTLY the same boat as you, except DD is 14 mo, and she's only likes close contact on *her* terms, i.e. she will cuddle up against me when *she* wants to, but heaven help us if she rolls over and hits me or DH when she needs to spread out.

Right now she is not tolerating our bed well at all, so she's in a crib in another room, and I am walking (like a zombie) across the house every night. (see my post on crib guilt.)

hope you get some good tips! I will be watching for them, too.

[NEastMomma]

Oh gosh. This sounds EXACTLY like my situation! My DS just turned one and I'm toying with the idea of doing some night weaning soon. He's just cutting his top two teeth, so going to let that die down first.

DS sleeps with us and wakes frequently to nurse. If we try and just snuggle, pat, rub, etc. he just fully wakes and wails/thrashes around until he can nurse.

I'm imagining doing teeny-tiny baby steps of night weaning - no nursing from 12am - 2am and keeping that up for a week, then 11am - 2am and so on.

Sorry I don't have any tips, but we're certainly in the same boat!