Cudde to sleep?

I don‘t like nursing to sleep anymore. My LO is 8 months old. I love cuddling and cosleeping and I‘ve accepted all the night wakings, nursing to sleep is the easiest during the night. But at bedtime I‘d like to change that. We have already started, actually. But now we‘re just rocking him to sleep (or almost asleep.. he often finally falls asleep on his mattress which is right next to ours, floor beds). The good thing is that he accepts my husband rocking him to sleep now, too. Before he would scream if it wasn‘t me bringing him to bed. However, I wish I could just cuddle him to sleep. But if he lays next to me and doesn‘t get the boob, he starts to panic, scream, I can hardly settle him. Is this okay because I‘m there, or do you have any other tips?

Also, how do you handle wake ups before you go to bed (false starts)? They make me so nervous and I am a little bit sad for my baby that I‘m gone when he wakes up but I also want to have the evenings to myself and my partner..