What's that noise?

Oh, it's just my head pounding. So, we've had an ongoing issue with our cat, Dirty Sox crying/meowing to wake us up in the morning. She actually didn't start with the crying, she first messed with the blinds in the bedroom. We thought we had won. Since she figured out that she couldn't get up on the windowsill, she stands at the end or side of our bed & just cries. We tried calling her up on the bed & petting her, which worked, until about an hour later, wash, rinse & repeat. We tried carrying her out from our room & putting her in the guest bedroom. Which worked, but prevented Austin from being able to get in there & use the litter box. We tried earlier this week taking her out & putting her in the guest bathroom. She HATED that & cried the whole time & pawed at the door. We tried just simply closing our door & they BOTH sat outside of it & cried. So yesterday, exhausted & at the point of giving up, I turned to my friend. The two most common pieces of advice were to use a squirt bottle & to simply ignore the cat because any response from the owner is a response, so the cat will keep on keeping on. Phil & I are against the water bottle because I think it's mean & DS is skittish anyhow & we fear that would prevent her from wanting to come into the bedroom at all. This morning was day one of Mission: Ignore DS. It went okay. She started crying/meowing at about 5:30 & kept on doing it on & off until the alarm went off. She also managed to knock down one of the monkeys & started messing with the blinds because she was so determined to get attention. Day One: Us - 1 DS -0... I think.....