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Well, I switched to an early bedtime and now G's sleep looks like this:
7:30 try to sleep
8:00 nurse (I get ready for bed here)
9:00 nurse
sometimes 9:30 or 10 nurse (I think he is still set for 10pm)
sleep 10-2 or 3
sleep 2 hours
up at 4 or 5

(he used to fall asleep on his own at 10 and sleep till 4 and maybe a third stretch till 5 or 6)

BOTTOM LINE I get an extra 1 hour, sometimes 2, and he gets a bunch more. Plus he wakes up chatting up his crib now instead of screaming his lungs off.

Oh, and last night was weird. He still did the wake up every 30-60 minutes at first, then woke up in 2 hours, and the long stretch was his last one! (AND five whole hours--yay!)

ETA I know you said early is before 7, but we switched from 10 or 11 or 12 *on his schedule* to 7 to 7 30 ish more on my schedule.

On a typical night for us, C is asleep by 7. We start her routine sometime between 6 and 6:30. Some nights she sleeps straight until 5-6am but she is typically up once at around 3 to eat and then she sleeps until between 7:30 and 8.

She gets around 13 hours of sleep a night and she wakes up super happy and smiling. She started sleeping later with age. She used to be a 6-6 baby but now she sleeps 6/7-8.

@pastemoo: hahaha I love that he wakes up "chatting" that's so cute.

I switched to a 6:30 bedtime and he started getting up at 6. However, it was during this time he's had three nights of completely sleeping through the night (11.5 hours all three times).
The last 3 nights I've been putting him to bed at 7pm though instead and he's been sleeping in until 6:30-7. Today he slept in until 7:45, but I think that's because he missed a nap yesterday.

I seriously think every baby is soooo different. One book/rule doesn't apply to all. Also, I've found I have to change my plans/strategies because Cobi is always changing.

This strategy never worked for us. My son sleeps a certain amount of hours a night, so if I put him down earlier, we had earlier wake ups. You have to try it to find out, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Mine didn't sleep longer....same number of hours, but it cured the nightwaking issue. I am an early-bird, so it's not a big deal.

@winniebee: Yeah, 4's a bit excessive for sure! I guess all you can do is try. Are you going to move it back 20 minutes every few days? I'm excited to hear how it goes.

Tonight mine had a cat nap after church (yes we made it!) and I wasn't sure how to 'count' that, but it seemed to re-set his nap timer, so he was eyes-sleeping at 7:30pm tonight instead of super early. I think the key is just that they do not get over-tired.

Good luck!!

@Mrsdaredevil: Mine does the same thing. I tried an early bedtime recently because of nap timing and she must have thought it was a nap.

@cvbee: I think you're right about catching them before they're over tired. I was thinking to myself tonight as I was putting her down, its not like she has any concept of time... so how is a "set" time supposed to work for all babies?!

@winniebee: We tried an early bedtime one night and it backfired horribly. That said, it was out of the blue about an hour earlier than usual... we hadn't gradually worked our way to an earlier time. We have LO sleeping by 7:30 and she wakes between 8:30 and 9:30 (lately more towards 8:30). The few times she's slept through the night have surprisingly been nights she went to bed super late, like 10pm.

I should add that bedtime moved back over the course of six months in 15 minute segments as he got tired earlier and earlier

@winniebee: good luck! I hope he sleeps well tonight. M is still sleeping. Fingers crossed we've got a few more hours before she wakes up for her first feeding.

@winniebee: that's great! What time did you start the bedtime routine to get him in his crib by 7?

M was down at 8:15, up at 1, up at 4:30. Still asleep now at 7am. I can't wait for her to drop one of those wakeups!

@winniebee: Yay!
@Coco Bee:

We just recently switched our LO up to a 6:30 bedtime and she sleeps until about 6:30 AM or later--the same time she got up when she went to bed at 8 PM, and also at 7 PM, so for us, it means she gets more sleep and has the same wake time. She's also overall less cranky and now naps better during the day.