OP, I went through the same thing with DD. We co-slept from the beginning of the night, and she was a little restless but didnt usually wake me up til she actually woke up and cried. The ONLY thing that would put her back to sleep was nursing. She would SCREAM til she got it. I tried rocking her for a little while, I tried putting her in her own crib. Pacifiers. Nothing worked. I eventually accepted the fact that this was her, and as she got older she got better. She eventually started sleeping for a little longer. Then she eventually got to the point (at about 15 months old) where she would only wake up once or twice a night to nurse. She had good nights and bad nights. Once in awhile she would wake up 4 times, other times she'd sleep the whole night. She is now 18 months, and at 16.5 months she stopped nursing. She woke up her usual 2 times a night for the first 2 weeks, but was soothed fairly easily by me talking to her and touching her. Then after that she started consistantly sleeping through the night. She still wakes up once in awhile but is easily soothed back to sleep. I think that if you stay patient with him and give him what he needs/asks for, which it sounds like you are, then your bond with him will be even stronger and he will have lots of faith in you because you provided him with what he needed.
As for co-sleeping, maybe you could try putting him to the inside of the bed against the wall, and having a small round pillow or rolled blanket between the 2 of you so that when he is restless he will not wake you until he cries, then you can easily grab him without getting up and nurse him. Often DD and I would both fall asleep while she was nursing, and I'd wake up hours later with my boob hanging out of my bra lol.
