Crib sleeping

Hi! We just transitioned my eight month old to his crib. He was sleeping pretty much through the night in a rock n play but he’s gotten too big for it so we finally switched him to the crib. He sleeps terrible in it ☹️ he wakes up 2-3 times a night and just cries and cries. We night weaned him a while ago so he doesn’t need food in the night, and he has his pacifier usually when we go in there, so there’s nothing I can really do for him when he wakes up like that. We just comfort him for a min without picking him up and then go back out. Any tips for helping him adjust better? I was thinking maybe it was going from the inclined surface to flat but honestly he took to belly sleeping right away in the crib so I don’t want to incline his mattress at all. He has a fan in his room for white noise and I turn on a twilight turtle to help him fall asleep but it goes off after a little while. Any advice at all would be appreciated!

Edit- side question- any one else’s babies prefer to sleep like, flat on their face?! My baby does this too and even though I know he can roll or turn his head it freak me out!