I forgot to mention that because she's already 3 and has the run of the house, she may not take to being in a crate well. If this doesn't work, I would suggest using an ex-pen... with the exact same methods. This gives her a little more room to move around. (We tried crating Franklin at first, but he would wake up too early and never go back to sleep. When he's in his ex-pen, he has a lot of toys and things to keep him busy. Now we only use the crate for travel.)
Knockz: I'm not really quite sure how to answer your question. Like I said, I ended up putting Franklin in an ex-pen so I was never worried about his bladder control. He had a pee pad in there and he just used that. When we woke up, he would bark and jump and try to get out but we simply ignored him until he was quiet. THEN he got playtime.
Maybe someone who has used the crate more consistently than I did can help?