XP: Sleep Advice Please

I'll take any advice you've got...  I'm feeling a little desperate as I am going back to work next week and will have to be getting up at 6:30 instead of 8:30.

Right now Matteo starts getting sleepy around 7:30 or 8 so we start his bedtime routine of a bath, change into pajamas, swaddle, nurse to sleep (he almost always falls asleep while nursing at this time it isn't intentional).  Usually he is in bed by 8:30 or 9. 

He wakes up after about 4.5 hours of sleep, around 12:30 - 1 and I nurse him.  I put him down usually when he is pretty much asleep or sound asleep.  After around 5 or 10 minutes he starts crying and we try to soothe him in his bassinet and if that doesn't work we pick him up, rock him back to sleep and put him down.

He wakes again around 2:30 or 3.  I try to soothe him in his bassinet, almost always fails, pick him up and rock him to sleep, try to put him down.  This most often repeats 2 or 3 times.  Usually after the 2nd try putting him back down either my Dh or I gets up and takes him out of our room so at least one of us can sleep.  Depending on how awake he is we either put him straight in the swing or have some quiet playtime in the dark.  On good nights he will fall asleep immediately in the swing and on bad nights he will be up playing for an hour and a half very alert.  If he is still up 3 hours after his last feed (around 4ish) I nurse and put him in the swing.

Things we have tried are doing:

- glow seahorse

- baby crack machine (we run the  projection all night)

- wearing the sheet of the bassinet so it smells like us

- run a humidifier (moisture and white noise)