Hey T.,
A wise man, our pediatrician for over 22 years, once said, "there are 2 battles you cannot win; eating and sleeping. So don't enter the battlefield. I was skeptical, but at the time my daughter was 2 and I had a newborn son and needed to sleep myself. My daughter was the tough one who decided that waking up at night and screaming her head off while running down the hall was fun. I led her back to her room with the words, "nightime is for sleeping." However, that's not what I was showing her by getting up every time. Instead, one day during lunch, I tried very calmly and simply to set the rules for night. I said, "Honey, nightime is for sleeping. I need to sleep so that I can be a good Mommy for you and your baby brother. So if you wake me up at night and run down the hall making noise, I'm going to have to put a gate up at your doorway so that you can't leave your room. If you want to get up and look at books or quietly play, you may. But I will not get up with you." She was pretty precocious and tested me that very night. I got up to bring her back to her room, put a children's gate up and walked back to my roon without saying a word. She stood at that gate calling me for almost an hour before giving up and going to sleep. She didn't do it again. As for the timing of their awakening...sorry...my kids were always 5am risers. I used to leave books and safe toys in the bed/crib to try to steal a little extra time. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. My kids are now 22, 21, and 15....we all survive it, honest.
Good Luck,
K.