KD, I know what you mean - we ended up in minor injuries with 16 m.o. DS having a pulled elbow. I felt I was doing 'extended' bf a service as he was screaming when he wasn't feeding, but a few people kept looking over at him, then looking away, then looking back. I expect they were just interested, as bf toddlers are pretty unusual here.
The nurse we saw seemed to take it in her stride though which was nice.
At other times HCPs have thought it less normal e.g. at 13 months two GPs seemed unconcerned that DS had gone on nursing strike, as if bf was simply superfluous at that point. As it happened, he'd developed an ear/chest infection.
IsItMeOr, you've probably tried this, but have you tried giving your DS an earlier nap and then an earlier bedtime?
haverina, Helen Ball at the Sleep Lab at Durham University has done research on bedsharing and bf. IIRC she says there's no real research been done on whether bedsharing increases or decreases the SIDS risk for bf babies, because the risk for bf babies is so low anyway that it would take a study of thousands and thousands to get enough data.
Her research suggests that a side-car cot conferred many of the benefits of bedsharing. You can read an article about her research here.
Anecdotally, DS used to sleep in a carry cot right next to my bed, and I used to wake up every time he changed between sleep cycles in the way a 'properly' bedsharing mother would.