How to stop multiple wake up - 3.5 year old

[boopdoop]

DS is 3 years 5 months. He's always been a nightmare sleeper, he's only ever slept through the night 6 times in his entire life. For the last 18 months we've been co-sleeping. I posted on here a few weeks ago for help stopping that... we have managed to stop the co-sleeping which is great, and he is really proud of himself for sleeping in his own bed all night...

However.... he's waking 3-5 times a night at least. He wakes around 10.30, often 11.30, then usually 1.30, 3.30, 5.30 etc... he used to wake up at 7am, but since he's been in his own bed it's been more like 8-8.15am (which is great!)... but the multiple night time wakings are nearly killings us... especially as I'm 11 weeks pregnant and DH works away a lot usually. He's around for the rest of August so I'm really keen to try and improve this whilst DH is around to do as much of the nighttime stuff as possible.

Most of the time we just walk him back to bed, sit next to him whilst he falls asleep. This usually only takes a few minutes at most. If we try to leave the room before he's asleep he's straight out of bed crying and following us back into his room.

We have a gro-clock which he likes and is excited about (got it last week) and is understanding in terms of waiting for the sun in the morning, but hasn't really got the bit about seeing stars and going back to sleep in the night!

If he's woken up because he's wet the bed then it takes him an hour to go back to sleep, they are tough. He's in pampers pull ups at night and was pretty much 95% dry when we were co sleeping but that's regressed since he's sleeping in his bed (I don't really mind about this other than his nappy is often leaking and we're having to change him and bedding at 3am, then he's taking an hour to get back to sleep.)

I just don't really know what's best to do to help improve this... we've done so many different things over the years to try and improve sleep and now I just feel like I can't see the wood for the trees, and so I wondered if anyone had any tips or suggestions or experience of what we can do to help him try to resettle.

Have you tried a chart for if he stays in his bed until the sun comes up on his clock? Bribery, basically! It has worked with my DS though.
Also, you might do this already but have you tried making up his bed in the following order:

Mattress
Waterproof sheet
Fitted sheet
Waterproof sheet
Fitted sheet

So if he has an accident in the night then you just pull off the top fitted sheet and waterproof sheet and he can jump straight back into bed? Doesn't help if he's weed on the duvet, but a spare one ready made up ready to throw on might help.

Thanks Sharon. Bribery doesn't seem to work so well with him at night. We tried it for bedtime recently, and it worked for 2 nights but then he just didn't care enough (and it was for something he really really wanted) it at night in the moment it just didn't work. Frustrating!

Thanks for the tip re the bedding, will try that. Have seen that suggested before I think, but totally forgot about it so haven't been doing it, but it would help.

Bumping to see if anyone can advise... 3 weeks on and he's still waking 4-5 times a night. He's going back to being dry at night which is great so that's no longer an issue, but he's waking and needing us to take him back to bed and sit with him whilst he falls asleep. And he mostly wants me, often screaming for me if it's DH doing it (which isn't great in a terraced house).

I have DH around for one more week before he starts going away again. I'm 14 weeks pregnant and still quite knackered... really don't know what to do...

Help?!?!?!