iPhone Restoration from iCloud Problem

Hey everyone! Today I decided to update my iPhone 4 because it was still on 4.3 iOS Software. I went and updated it to 5.1 aware that it would erase all of my data (e.g. Applications, etc). After running through the iphone set up, I unlocked my phone aware that some of my data would be gone, but I still had my contacts & photos. I then decided to back up and restore my phone to an earlier state in which I still had all of my applications. After doing so I unlocked my phone only to discover ALL data completely gone, including my 200+ photos, music and contacts. I was completely in shock because the point at which I restored my phone, I still had all of my data. I'm now stuck with a fresh iPhone with only 3 of my previous apps, and no contacts or photos or music! I immediately did some research to discover I had to simply erase my settings through General, then restore it with my wifi using iCloud. NOW HERE IS SOMETHING TRICKY - My computer says I last updated iCloud @ 4:04PM, but when I go through the iCloud restore set-up process on my phone, It only shows earlier dates from my iPad, so restoring it does absolutely no good because I don't have anything like contacts or photos on my iPad. So my question is, how can I use iCloud to restore my iPhone 4 back to the state with my contacts & photos when only 3 un-helpful restore points are showing, and why can't I select the last updated iCloud time showing on my computer? Any info would be so helpful I'm missing an incredible amount of photos and contacts. Thank you so much in advance