6 month old suddenly awful sleeper

My almost 6 month old is suddenly a horrible sleeper. At 6 weeks he was sleeping through the night, now he wakes up about every hour! Sometimes he just wants his paci and will conk right back out, but other times he cries for an hour... unless we are holding him... which we try not to do. So pretty much one of us ends up leaning over his crib for an hour trying to pat him or caress his head until he falls back asleep. 😫

What can I do?? I’m not a huge fan of cry it out method... I mean I will let him cry a couple of minutes but I’m not going to let my baby scream all night. Any other tips and tricks?? I miss my sleep!

Thanks!!