Night nursing *preventing* sleep in my 14mo?

[luckiest]

DS is 14 months and nurses anywhere from 3 to 10 times at night.  This isn't a problem for us; we cosleep and we all get enough rest (generally, of course some nights are better than others).  Getting him to sleep initially has always been challenging.  He's very high-needs and active, and it's really, really hard to get him to wind down, and it involves him nursing for a few minutes, running around the room, coming back to nurse for a few more minutes, doing nursing gymnastics...for at least half an hour before he's still.  It's physically exhausting. 

In an effort to give me a break, about a month ago DH tried rocking him down.  It went beautifully!  He transitioned so much faster, he went down without a single peep, and even slept better throughout the night.  So that has become our new routine; I get to relax and read a book while DH rocks DS to sleep.

He still nurses back to sleep when he wakes up at night.  Like I said, that's fine, except that as it gets closer to morning, he gets really restless and nurses but isn't able to go back to sleep entirely (and therefore I'm not able to either).  On the weekends when he gets like this, around 5am, DH will take him downstairs and he'll sleep deeply for another hour (or longer) on DH's chest.  During the week though, I just have to throw in the towel at some point and get us up, even though I know he would sleep longer if DH rocked him.  He's obviously over-tired and mornings are really rough until he naps.

It seems like my breasts are a distraction at these times, rather than a comfort.  Like if they're available, he wants them, and he'll fight sleep to be able to enjoy them.  Take them away, and he's able to relax.  

I never, ever thought I'd night-wean...but I wonder if it's something I should look into?  I'm absolutely not ready to move him out of our bed, but I'm not sure how this would go with me (and my chi chis) present.  I've tried to rock him down the way DH does, but there's no way.  He wants The Boobs.  

Maybe we could try DH sleeping in the middle of the bed, so DS isn't next to me?  

Any suggestions/insight are greatly appreciated!

[TiredX2]

Originally Posted by luckiest 

Maybe we could try DH sleeping in the middle of the bed, so DS isn't next to me?  

LOL, that is actually what I was going to suggest.  Some babies will wake up to nurse when Mom is right next to them, but if they're cuddled on the other side of Dad, instead, then they just keep sleeping.

Why not try it out and see if it does anything?  Is DH a fairly light sleeper?  If so, I would encourage him to pay DS' back (or whatever he finds comforting) if it seems like he is starting to wake and hopefully get him to never fully wake at that point.

Good luck!