Returning to work - 9 month old not sleeping

[Cynara]

Does anyone have any advice for helping a 9 month old to settle in their own cot?
My baby slept in a co-sleeping bed until 7 months, when we moved him into a cot because he was crawling and was able to get out of his bed. The cot is next to our bed, and although he sleeps soundly in it from 6pm until we go to bed at about 10pm, during the night he refuses to settle back to sleep in the cot after his feeds.

I end up bringing him into our bed where he sleeps well but we don't. We have delayed moving his cot into his own room because I am still breastfeeding and he usually has two feeds during the night.

The problem is that I am about to return to work and will be working 12 hour shifts, some of them overnight. I'm worried about functioning at work after the kind of interrupted sleep we have at the moment, and also about DP dealing with the night time feeds/refusal to settle. Our baby loves DP but won't fall asleep as easily in bed with him as with me, so I'm worried that when I'm not there he'll be up all night screaming.

What should we do? Is moving him into his own room a good idea? Maybe if he can't see us he'll be more willing to stay in his cot?

I've read this post back and I know it sounds very trivial, but he's my first baby and I just want to do the right thing for him. I hate the thought of him feeling scared and abandoned in the night, so I want to try to get him settled before my maternity leave ends. If anyone has any thoughts I'd be very grateful.

Two things to try spring to mind.
One try him in his own room, but as you say that might ght just mean you get less time in bed!
Could you take the side off the cot, and pull it next to your bed to make like a bedside cot. Then he might stay in the cot, but be next to you?

I spent a lot of time sleeping on DS1s floor. DS 2 got a slightly bigger room, and we kept a bed and a cot in there for ages.

Thankyou for replying addicted. We did have the side off the cot to begin with, but when he learned to crawl he was getting himself out of his bed onto ours during the evening while we were downstairs, so we put the side on to stop him throwing himself off the bed. It worked really well while it lasted though, he didn't realise that he wasn't in bed with us.
I'm glad you mentioned sleeping on your DS's floor, I was thinking of moving the cot into the other room and sleeping in there on an airbed, but I wasn't sure if that was a ridiculous idea (thanks SIL) and not really solving the problem. If you've tried that and it works, I'll give it a go. Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it!

We moved our son into his room quite early as we seemed to be disturbing each other at night which meant he never really fully settled. Literally from the night we moved him he started sleeping through. I thinksometimes that little bit of quite helps, also we found that when he woke he knew we weren't right next to him so didn't get up to babble away. Give it a go before u go back and see how it goes. As long as u respond if/when ur baby cries I'm sure they won't feel abandoned!!

Thankyou Julie for your advice. I don't know if anyone will be here to see thi