Wiped out Contacts

Question: Is it possible to somehow capture 'pieces' of data from two different iPhone backup files in iTunes and roll them into one composite file?

Background: Once again, when updating iTunes on my PC, I somehow lost all of my Contacts the next time I synced my iPhone. In the past, I was able to recover most everything from a relatively recent iTunes backup. This time, I did a backup prior to downloading the update but still managed to run into problems. It turns out (for reasons I don't understand) the latest backup is complete with the exception of my Contacts. I had to go back as far as Oct to find a backup that included my Contacts. Of course, if I restore using this backup, I loose everything from the past 4 months (not just from my Contacts, but also from all my apps including Notes, Calendar, and several organizational apps that I use daily). If I use the more recent backup, I salvage 4 months of data in all my other apps, but have an empty Contacts app. Please help. If you've got time, please consider the following as well:

Related questions:

- Is it possible to view my iPhone Contacts in iTunes or any other app on my PC (or potentially online)?

- Does iCloud (something I don't currently us) backup Contacts (and other apps) or is it strictly for music?

- I have online server mail accounts (gmail & AOL) but have never synced my iPhone Contacts with them. Is the best/only way to remedy my situation to: (1) restore iPhone w/ the Oct backup (includes Contacts but missing other app data), (2) somehow upload my Contacts w/ online email account, (3) restore iPhone w/ my latest backup (includes all app data except Contacts), and then (4) somehow download my contacts from the online email account? If I do this, will I loose a lot of data from within individual Contacts in the exchanges (ie, multiple email addresses/phone numbers, snail mail addresses, birthdays, notes, etc)?