Re: Fasting..
When it is HARD to keep then its Sunnah to brake the fast. Otherwise travellers and Pasiants would have got more SAWAB.
According to one of the Hadith your views are correct "when a person gets up early in the morning and do Wuzu with cold water then Allah says that to Angels that look at my slaves he just got up from his sleep and doing Wuzu in cold morning, write his name in the list of my friends" This is a Hadith from Saheh Bukhari Kitab Ibbadat