Cry It Out

I need help. My daughter is 8 months old this week. She wakes frequently during the night and for the past two days has refused to sleep by herself. Her pediatrician has been recommending the cry it out method and her dad and I couldn't bring ourselves to do it. Well we called about the not sleeping without me holding her situation and again they told me to do the cry it out method they said that is the easiest and quickest way to get her to sleep on her own. I tried the method that worked the first time (she had a relapse and I gave in and rocked her that's when the problems started again) and so now I'm trying the cry it out method for night criers..... my question is, it says to go in there every 5 minutes comfort them and don't stay longer than a minute. Well it's been 5 minutes and she isn't crying just crawling around in her crib playing with her paci. Do I go in still or do I wait until she cries for 5 minutes and then go in!? When I do go in what do I do!? The article they gave me wasn't descriptive. It just said be boring! What worked for you!? How did you go about it!?