How to burp at bedtime?

greeneyed_bride

I nurse DS (8mo) to sleep at night, and I have a problem: he burps after nursing with no problem when he's awake, but when he's asleep/half asleep, I can't get him to burp. So inevitably, he wakes up 30-45 minutes later crying because he has to burp, and then after I burp him, it takes a while to get him to go back to sleep. He's having sleep issues anyway (waking up anywhere from 4-8 times a night), so this is just adding on to the issues we're already having. The same thing often happens when I nurse in the middle of the night.

I've tried bouncing him and patting him while he's on my shoulder for as long as 15 minutes, but he just won't burp. I've even tried putting him down in his crib for a minute or two and then picking him back up, but it doesn't work. Any tips for getting him to burp before I put him to bed so that he doesn't wake up from needing to burp after half an hour?