My dogs aren't crated, but Max went through the same thing. Jake sleeps with me in bed, Max sleeps in bed for part of the night and then gets on the floor, when he gets hot. Hubby comes home between 6 and 6:30 from work. When he comes home the dogs go out. They were find with that for months. Max started whining and licking my face earlier and earlier in the morning, before hubby got home. The first few times, I let them out. They did their thing. Finally, I said enough. When I heard him up and about, I turned towards the center of the bed and pulled the cover over my head. He tried and tried to get me to move, but I stayed perfectly still. After a week, he quit. He then tried it on hubby on the weekends. He would get up with him and let them out. I laughed at him everytime for falling for it. Finally about a month ago, Joe quit and would just turn over. After a few attempts, Max gave up. Now he sleeps til one of us is up. If you give in, you are teaching her to whine or act up to get her way. Don't let her win. If she checks out at the vet, let her whine or whatever til you are ready to get up. Move her to another room, if you have to, but make her wait on you. It is just like a kid whining in the store for candy. If you give in to shut them up, they won and they learned that whining gets them what they want and they do it more. She is just pushing to see what she can get. Good luck.
Kathy