Night (not)sleeping - help

I don't know what to do.
2 weeks ago DS got sick, just a cold. He was unsettled (not surprisingly) and I just assumed he'd get back to his usual routine when he felt better.
He's been better for about a week, but his sleeping (i.e. in the cot, not asleep) is not getting any better, in fact it's getting worse.
For ages now, his night time routine ended with him going in his cot and asleep in about 5-10 min. A bad night was 15-20 min before sleep. And then sleeping till 4am ish.
He's been crying for the past 1.5 hrs. This has now become the norm and might be going on for another 1.5 hrs. We put the dummy back in, stroke his head, pat, shh, (eventually) cuddle and rock till he's calm, then it all starts again 5min later. Then he's waking repeatedly from 12am.
I swear I'm not doing anything different, and I can't think what else to try.

Have you had his ears checked? Very common to get an ear infection after a sinus cold and one of the main symptoms is trouble settling (ears worse when lying down). Just a thought.

Yup id give him pamol too, Isabella has been terrible at night, really hard to settle, so we are putting it down to teeth as she is dry fed etc etc and giving her pamol.

Oh poor you. We also had some success with breaking the cycle by getting bubs up for 10 mins.   she settled afterwards. I thought it was crazy but it worked. Could be a temperature thing maybe- we have sleep issues if too hot or cold.