For about a week, every night or every other night my 5 month old will wake up after sleeping 3-5 hours and can't soothe himself back to sleep... so after giving him a few minutes of trying on his own I pick him up and he immediately falls asleep. I lay him down and he immediately whines and freaks out and squirms and will not sleep. It's the most pitiful thing. I try to wait and just pat him back to sleep but it does not work. So I pick him up and again, he falls right back to sleep and we repeat this process 6-10 times before he FINALLY lays in his crib. I usually rock him for 10-15 mins each time. He used to never do this and, unless he was hungry, he would put him self back to sleep if he ever did wake up. He went from sleeping 9-12 straight at night for almost two months, to having one waking every now and then, to doing this. I don't think it's because of teething because it's not a "I'm in pain" cry. And of course I check his diapers and I can tell he's not hungry because he immediately falls asleep.