Any suggestions for gentle night weaning or partial night weaning?

[CStone1]

I am looking into night weaning or partially night weaning my son. I am still probably going to wait until he is 18 months old to try it but I am currently doing some research and asking others about what they have done. He is currently 16.5 months old and sleeps in the bed with us. His sleep patterns have always been rather variable but he rarely wakes up less then 3 - 4 times in the night/ early morning to nurse and often it is 7-9 times or more or hourly. I always just nurse him as soon he wakes up and he usually goes back to sleep pretty easily this way but sometimes will nurse for quite a while before falling back asleep and this is also how I get him to sleep at the beginning of the night. At one point I tried comforting him back to sleep other ways but found it much easier and quicker to just nurse. I have also tried putting him in a different bed but he seems to wake up even more and I would prefer to have him in our bed anyway. He is down to usually just one nap of 1 -3 hours. He generally goes to sleep somewhere between 8-10pm and wakes up between 7-8am. He is happy and energetic during the day and healthy weight. I'm not concerned about him and think that this is all quite normal. I however am finding that the sleep deprivation is really catching up with me and I am getting to the point where I feel I need to do something about it soon due to moodiness, exhaustion, low energy during the day, etc. I do not want to have him cry it out and would prefer to have him in our bed at least some of the time. I am looking for a way to gently night wean him. I am fine with nursing before bed and even 1 or 2 times in the night would be fine. I plan to continue to breastfeed during the day for a while longer. Just wondering what others have tried. Thanks.

[Eresh]

It's been a little while since nightweaning ds1 but I remember the high points. We set up a low mattress in DS's room. He had a snack right before bed and then I nursed him. Dh set up his backpacking mattress and sleeping bag beside the bed and slept next to ds's bed. When ds woke up, dh would comfort him. Ds adjusted after a week or so. He actually ended up back cosleeping until he was 3 but by that point he had gotten used to not nursing at night. The snack was crucial to not waking up hungry in the middle of the night.