Taking puppies out at night

What you are doing is exactly right, and yes, I'm sorry, exactly neccessary.  But, the good news is, you get USED to functioning on less sleep, and, it doesn't last forever!
 
Welcome to idog.

I never wake Gracie up but let her set her own schedule.. She wakes me up around 4 a.m. by putting her paws on my back and whining. Then she gets up at 8 for the day, sometimes sooner. Boss will sleep until I get out of bed, but my days of sleeping in on weekends are over since Gracie came to live with us.
 

how long should we expect to get up in the middle of the night? Until she is 16 weeks?

Hello there []

You are doing everything exactly right. What you can do is either slowly change the schedule (ie every week you take her out half an hour later), but personally I would simply keep this up until she is about 18 to 20 weeks, then she should be able to hold it just fine from 11 to 6:30. If she sleeps in your bedroom (as she should), she would whine and give signals anyhow by then (when properly house trained, as it certainly looks she is) if she needed to go out.

One thing I want to point out, even though you did not inquire about it, is to not crate her too much. While being crated is a way of life for many dogs, it is not a good thing (quite contrary to some stories you might have heard), but rather a necessary evil. So while of course you have her crated when nobody is home (better might be a puppy pen - they are not expensive, and even better is a dog-proof room), make sure to not use the crate while you are at home. Make puppy safe areas, have a leash hooked to a doorknob or a hook if you can't have an eye on her for a bit, and so forth. Let the dog grow 'into the house', and not experience it from a metal straightjacket.

Most importantly: enjoy your puppy and your dog-to-be. []

So what's your theory on why crating is a "necessary evil"?

Most dogs are NOT crated enough.

Actually, you do want to use a crate or an ex pen a fair amount while you are housetraining.  Used correctly the crate is a dogs "safe" place, or den.  Mine seek theirs out on their own when they want some down time.

My two spend their evening running in and out of their crates playing. It is the place they go when they want down time too. If the door closes and they are on the outside, they paw at it until they get it open or the banging drives me crazy enough and I help.
 
I even have a cat who lives in a 36" crate. He doesn't like to be around anyone, so he spends his entire day in that crate curled up under blankets and comes out at night and lays on top of his crate.
 
I'm not saying that some dogs don't spend too much time in crates. Boss did before coming to live with me. He spend the first 8 months of his life in a crate he couldn't even stand up in, and the crate was kept in a closet. He was forced to use the bathroom in that crate, etc. And surprisingly after all that I have no problems crating him when I need to, or him going to his on his own for some relaxation.

I totally disagree on waking a puppy up in the middle of the night to take it outside.  At 11 weeks a puppy should be able to hold it all night especially since it sounds like this is a very active puppy.  She's probably very tired by 10:30 at night and will have no problem holding it until 6:30am especially since she's probably asleep the whole time.  I've raised numerous puppies and most, if not all, are perfectly content and able to hold it overnight. 
 
A crate is a metal straightjacket?  Don't use it when you're home?  If you don't use a crate when you're home and only when you leave you might just have a nice case of separation anxiety on your hands and a dog that can seriously injure itself trying to escape the crate.  Tie a puppy up in the house when you can't keep an eye on it?  That's terribly unsafe and any number of things could result, the least of which is the destruction that the puppy could do to furniture, woodwork, etc.  I don't think that's good advice at all.  It sounds like the OP is doing a good job with crate training and sees what a useful thing it is.

I was told by my breeder that a puppy should be able to go one hour more than how many months they are for instance a 16 week old puppy should be able to make it 5 hours.  This is absolutely the max, but then as they get a month older start extending it to a reasonable time and you should soon be getting a full night sleep.

My puppies have slept through a 4-6 hour night as early as ten weeks (I know, I don't sleep enough... oh well). Even early on, if the crate is small enough, the puppy will whimper if it wakes up to potty, and you can get up and take it out. Of course, Emma still occasionally gets up to potty in the middle of the night. I don't mind, as long as it doesn't become an every night affair.

I've been sleeping regularly for 7 hours since my golden turned 11 weeks. His water gets taken up 2 hours before bed (although not really anymore), and he has one of those hamster water things on his crate. I'm not sure how much longer I'll wait before trying for the full 8 hours; he's pretty close I think. I don't have a whole lot of experience with housetraining dogs, but I guess he's able to hold it longer since he's a large dog?

With Wes, I got up at 2 and then at 6.  (I went to bed at 11.)  Every week I added 15 minutes to the alarm clock.  So it went 2:15, 2:30, 3:00, etc.  Once we got to about 4:30 I started letting him sleep the night.  He never had an accident in the crate - and it was probably being woken up more than he needed to be.  (I just really didn't want to mess up housetraining.)

It true what everyone's saying ... you do get used to functioning on less sleep and it doesn't last forever...

This is exactly why I love my dogs to sleep with me. They need to get up less than we usually think and I can tell when they need out when they are with me. The 1 or so hrs for each week of age is a good indicator but does not hold totally true for the night.

Puppies don't need to be awakened at night, but if they awaken on their own, need to be taken out asap - no waiting.
The use of crates is fine, but they shouldn't be used as punishment, nor should they be used to confine a dog whose owner is too lazy to give it proper attention and exercise.  Dogs that have lots of mental and physical stimulation, and who are introduced to the crate in a positive way, will normally find it a safe haven, and a pleasant place to nap, not a prison.
I use crates, but have raised plenty of dogs without them, too.  The real key is to have a safe place to confine them where they can't get into trouble during the housebreaking and chewing stages, and to supervise them religiously when they are outside that safe zone.