EEA PR - please advise quicker option for Naturalisation

[lonsdale]

Greetings all,
Both my partner and I are EEA citizens. My partner has been self-employed since 02/2010 when we moved to the UK with a view to remain here long term. I was a dependent of my partner till 04/2011 when I became employed and have been ever since.

I had two long absences in 2010 totaling 215 days due to compelling family reasons. Would it make sense to apply for PR indicating the qualifying period to be:

1. 02/2010 - 02/2015 - where I was a dependent for 14 months & absent from the UK for 7 out of these 14 months.
2. 11/2010 - 11/2015 - not having to ask for a waiver of an absence of 6+ months in a 12 month period

I thought I've automatically become a PR as of 02/2010 and was planning on applying for Naturalisation in 02/2016. Suppose I get the document certifying PR in 04/2016 - will I be able to apply for Naturalisation immediately or will have to wait till 04/2017, i.e. hold the PR document for 12 months?