It is so hard when you don't get enough sleep, especially when you think everyone else is getting lots of good sleep (which they probably aren't all the time). I started co-sleeping with my DD when she was 10 months old for the same reason. Was sick of getting out of bed. She is 2.5 now and is still a night waker, but now she gets out of her own bed in the middle of the night crawls into our bed, we don't even notice half the time.

It was a while ago now but I do remeber that in the inital stages of her co-sleeping she was a bit restless and wanted to play alot. I think I just told her it was night time / sleep time and to go back to sleep and just turned my back on her and went back to sleep. Eventually she got the picture that it was time to sleep. She did night wean around 11 months, which I think was because she was so much more relaxed about sleeping. i.e. she didn't need to wake up to demand a feed to get a cuddle, which she had to do when she was in her own cot. It didn't take too long for her to learn just go back to sleep after we brought her into the bed at first wake up.

I would say the biggest benefit to co-sleeping - apart from getting more sleep - is the bonding experience. Even now, when we have had a bad toddler day, it all gets forgotten with a cuddle in the middle of the night.