How can I restore from icloud backup after activating replacement phone as new

It doesn't take that long. Good to know. I've been updating a full 26 hours now (minus some small chunks of time here and there driving from work to home, etc) and it's still not finished.

And my problem is about to get worse. My poor phone just doesn't know it yet as it slogs along downloading picture after picture. I have too many photos. I had finally figured out how to manage all of that mess, installed the newer iOS, and had been happy as a clam since. Now, however, since I have to restore to an older backup since my replacement phone shipped with iOS 7 and not 8, I'm about to return to the point at which I had not solved all of those photo/memory/storage problems. Once my iPhone finally finishes restoring my iOS 7 backup? Right! I won't have enough space on my phone to just update my software to the newer iOS (which was what prompted me to address the problem the first time around.) Instead, I will have to deal with my photo/memory/storage ******** problem all over again so I can then update my iOS and then re-restore my phone from a point at which this had already been fixed.

If you have any insight on a way to make this less painful, I'd love to hear it.

I understand this is a "me" problem and I can't expect the repair queue people to move heaven and earth and supply me with the newest iOS just because I had a photo storage problem in the past. But I hope you at least have a better idea how much of a pain in the *** this is for some people. Being glib about how easy it is to remedy and suggesting that it would be ridiculous to ask that a phone ship with the latest software isn't helpful. I'm still not clear as to why it is such a ridiculous request. The buying-a-new-phone-from-the-store analogy isn't helpful since there's no box to open on a remanufactured phone (insurance providers are not shipping NEW phones, they are shipping other people's broken phones that have since been repaired.) Don't worry, I will pass along my angst to Apple. I'm only telling you of my dilemma so you'll play nicer.

i have a incredibly important case. and i needed an old text. and i deleted it around dec 2 now like dec14th i realized i NEED that whole convo i was super f*cked. but i did have a single restore point from 11/11. now i as able to go back and get some texts i needed. but i need the texts from 11/11 on... and i thought it would just add to the text message i already had. i was not thinking. i did not make a restore point thinking that i would over write the itunes back up...

my question is can i go back to the day that i restored, now that i have all the texts printed out? like if i delete the 11/11 back up can i then mabye try and see if it will back to the point i made the restore????

THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!! PLEASE HELP ME PLEASE PLEASE

note i never backed up to i cloud just once to itunes