11 week old lab sleep training help!

Hi!

I have had my black lab puppy for 2 weeks now and she's lovely! She likes to be in her crate or on the sofa (which we don't mind) for naps during the day and knows to go outside to pee so i feel like our day time routine is going well!

We started off crate training over night but after a week of waking up every 2 hours my husband and I started to feel way to tired so we decided to let her be free and test out how she would cope on her own.

We settle her for bed around 11h30, take her out for a last wee and then let her fall asleep downstairs with a puppy pad. We don't hear a peep until 5h45 am. Because we know her needs can be met- puppy pad, we know that the bark is loneliness-anxiety or just boredom. We've tried to let her bark it out but she's quite relentless. I have decided to set an alarm for 5h40 to go down pre-emptively, take her out and settle her again, on the sofa, where I fall asleep until 7 with her. I'm hoping that I can gradually push my alarm back for it to reach 7 as she gets older and more confident? Does this seem like a reasonable approach?

I'm confident in the fact that the potty training will come as her bladder can hold more and that we'll gradually wean her off the puppy pads.

Happy to have any feedback or suggestions!!

She's a pretty vocal dog and we're doing our best to not respond to the barking but it does usually point to needing to pee/poo/sleep/play so it is just her way of communicating a need too….