Choking on spit up?

our almost 8 week old sleeps in a Pack n Play pulled up next to a couch that I sleep on in our bedroom...he is super close to me but has his own safe space. In general, I have a VERY hard time getting him to sleep at all between 1am-4am...he is usually really unsettled and wakes up a lot during that time frame. At about 3am last night, I was in a light state of sleep (thankfully) and I jolted awake to him choking on breastmilk spit up. He was trying to catch his breath and swallow it back down but couldn’t. I reached over and grabbed him, patted his back hard, and suctioned him with the red bulb and he was fine. But, I can’t get it out of my head - what if I hadn’t woken up?? i am already so sleep deprived, I usually total anywhere from about 2-4 hours a night because of how much he is awake... but now it’s like I don’t want to sleep at all because I’m terrified of something bad happening.

Can babies this little really choke on spit up when laying on their backs??

Or do most of them end up working it out and swallowing it back down? I’ll ask the Dr when we go also.