Unpopular Opinion on early bedtimes

Super unpopular opinion on early bedtimes. We fell into the trap of putting our son to sleep at 7 pm. "Put your baby to sleep earlier and they'll sleep longer" they said...we are calling BS.

Our son is not a 12 hour per night baby. I'm convinced you have a unicorn baby if yours is and the reality is most aren't. Our son can occasionally hit 12 hours but typically sleeps between 10.5-11 hours per night.

Meaning we got absolutely stuck on 5 am wakeups. We sleep trained and managed to get rid of night wakes and night feeds but could not get rid of EMWs to save our lives. It was EXHAUSTING.

I regularly see parents comment that they are having the same issue. I'm convinced we all fell into the trap. What was the only thing that managed to solve our EMWs? Traveling across the world for a month with an 8 hour time difference that completely flipped his biological clock upside down and inside out.

We arrived back in our home country and he had to go to bed super late the first couple of nights (approx 11:30). I was expecting him to wake up by 8 am if we were lucky....guess what...he slept until after 11 am. We made a great effort to completely darken the bedroom on our first night back.

We've been back for 2 weeks now and the jet lag is gone but we have decided this boy will not be going to bed before 9 pm. A 9:30 bed time seems to be getting us to nearly 9 am which is perfect for us through the holidays.

If you're suffering with EMW, I empathize with you. If you have a younger baby under 4 months and aren't a morning person then one piece of advice....

Dont put your baby to bed at 7 pm. Set your dream sleep time based on your desired wake time. For example, DWT 8 am. Put your baby to bed at 9 pm. If you recognize that your baby is a 12 hour a night unicorn then move the bedtime forward.

That being said....proceed with caution. I'm not an expert and I am a FTM. My son was sleep trained and from traveling every few days while abroad and now teething...we are on a temporary hiatus from sleep training. We will pick it back up once the holidays are over and his teeth popped through.

Maybe I'll change my opinion when we pick up sleep training again but for now I'm enjoying sleeping in for the first time since having a baby.