I guess there are different definitions of CIO out there because I would consider most of what you are doing CIO. In my book anything that is not getting the up out of the crib and rocking them to sleep means you are letting them CIO, and teaching them to put themselves to sleep. To me, being anti-CIO means you will pick up and give attention to a child any time he/ she cries at night and only put them back in the crib asleep, or co-sleep so that you are there on demand. I also consider 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep to be "sleeping through the night." 12 hours from a baby under a year is truly amazing in my book. DD has NEVER slept that long at a time. EVER. She just doesn't require that much sleep. 10 hours at night is the max she will sleep now, usually only 8. My sister was the same was as a child. I was 6 years older and always needed more sleep than her. When I ended up deciding she had to learn to put herself to sleep she was still getting up at least 3 times between 11 and 5:30.
Other than my 2nd child, who I said we did CIO with periodically after a disruption to his routine, my kids never had to cry to learn how to sleep all night. So that is why I don't consider it CIO with my youngest. When she wakes overnight now, I do pick her up out of her bed (she sleeps in a cosleeper, attached to the side of my bed), I hold her, rock her, and sing her bedtime song. Then she goes back into the bed. She doesn't cry at that point, usually talks to herself a bit and goes back to sleep. I only do this if she wakes and cries. Sometimes she wakes up, talks to herself a bit, then falls back to sleep on her own.
But even with my 2nd, he didn't have night wakings, so the crying for 7 minutes was only at bedtime. And this would be for 1-3 days after a routine disruption (so a vacation, illness, etc.), never otherwise as he LOVED to sleep from birth. But the time I mentioned at 11 months, he was crying at bedtime (over the 7 minutes), and waking several times overnight. But every single time he cried I went to him, hugged him, laid him down, then sat next to his crib. I would start off with my hand through the slats and touching him, then I'd gradually move away. He didn't cry for this because I was right there with him. If I left the room he cried, so I didn't do that, I stayed there with him. Initially he was waking up 3 or 4 times a night, and this process took a good 30 minutes till he was okay for me to leave (sometimes awake, sometimes he had to be asleep). So in the beginning it was exhausting. And I had a 3.5yo to watch as well, so not like it was my first kid, when I think sleep issues are easier to handle. The whole process took 3 weeks till he was back to sleeping 12 hours at night.
Regarding the 12 hours at night, all of my kids sleep/slept 12 hours at night. The majority of my kids' friends do as well.
My 1st did not as a baby, but like I said, she was an incredibly bad sleeper. But starting at 2.5yo she went down at 7pm and was up at 7am. (She slept better before then, but had a later bedtime). She is now 6yo and during the school year she goes to bed at 7:30pm (sleep around 8pm after she reads) and is up around 6:30am. So 10.5-11 hours. This week she's been in camp and is totally exhausted so she's sleeping at 7:30pm and up just after 7am. The mean sleep a 6yo needs is 10.75 hours. Clearly not all of them since it is an average.
My son set his own bedtime of 6pm at just 6 weeks old. He was sleeping 6pm-1:30am from that age, and then 12 hours straight by 3 months old. He now sleeps about 11 hours at nearly 4yo.
My youngest is still essentially sleeping 12 hours a night in that she is in bed by 6:30pm and up for the day around 6:30am. Like I said, she's been waking up overnight recently, but not for the day till just about 12 hours after she went to bed. Like her older brother, she set the bedtime of 6pm, we simply can't keep her up any later, she just crashes wherever she is by 7pm.
So in my case, while my kids were all sleeping at least 6 hours stretches from very early ages, those 6 hours started at 6-6:30pm. So not really sleeping through the night if they were up for a feeding at 1am, 3am, 5am, then up for the day at 6am. I guess if they went down at midnight and slept till 6am I could see it, but that's awfully late for a baby to go to bed. And if they go to bed at 8pm, but wake at midnight for a feeding, then sleep 6 hours, I wouldn't consider it sleeping through the night.
I was one of those kids who "didn't need a lot of sleep", but honestly, I think I needed more than I got. I simply was never one to go to bed early. My mom didn't care as I slept all night from an early age, but I went to bed around 10pm, slept till about 8am. Well as I got older, and needed to get up earlier for school and such, I still went to bed at 10pm. But I never got up on my own in the morning, always with an alarm (or my mom when I was really little), so I don't think i was truly rested. And as an adult, I have terrible sleep habits. I need way more sleep than I get, I still can't get up early on my own (though now I have human alarm clocks!), go to bed way too late, and end up running on about 6-7 hours of a sleep a night. I probably need about 9. So to avoid my bad sleep habits, I make sure my kids stick to their early bedtimes and get enough rest now and hopefully it will stay with them.
They might complain but at the end of the day I am willing to bet dollars to donuts that the parent who is moaning the loudest really does want the kid in the bed.
Exactly. 
I said I do not let my babies CIO, which is putting them in a room alone and leaving them to cry until they fall asleep. I have had a couple of screaming fits(just like CIO'ers have 
) but I am always there comforting and holding them if they want or need it and not at 6 mos old. 
