Your timing sounds good. I read a book called "healthy Sleep - Happy Child" by Dr Weissbluth I think. You are basically following all the timings except that he recommends putting children down for night time sleep between 6-8 pm depending on age. Also make sure the child doe snot sleep past 3 pm in the afternoon or else it interferes with night sleep. Wake the child if she wants to sleep past 3.
I did the cry it out and sleep training around 8 months. I did not go in at all when the child cried. This is extremely hard especially with your first child. I would have to go put on ear phones so I wouldn't cry when I hear my son crying. The good news is that after a fwe days of being tough he settled into the routine and slept through the night and I finally got some rest too.
I think if you do go in to check on your baby when she cries at midnight then do no smile, cuddle or give her any sort of entertainment or reward for crying or else she learns that she gets something out of the night time crying. It sounds bad but it works and really does make for a very happy and manageable child all day long if you can get the naps and sleep system down to clockwork