Back in August, Big Fig Mattress reached out to me to see if I was interested in trying one of their mattresses. At first, I was hesitant. Yes, I had heard the raves from fellow plus size bloggers about this mattress designed specifically to support the needs of bigger bodies. My mattress at the time was only 3 years old, and was not cheap! I went all out when I bought it, splurging for the adjustable base and a latex mattress that I thought would last eons. It was a comfortable bed!
That is, it WAS a comfortable bed until Steve and I moved in together. I started to have some pretty bad pain when I woke up in the mornings. I'm primarily a side sleeper, and I noticed my right hip and lower back always felt off when I woke up. The suspected culprit? Spooning. I'm #TeamLittleSpoon over here, and Steve is a master spooner. No matter how I move on the bed, at what hour of the night, he will – in his sleeping state – find me and spoon me. Endearing? Sure. But my hypothesis was that my bed was sinking too much at night from the spooning. I started asking him to not spoon me, and noticed I didn't have as much pain the next morning.
Before I told Big Fig I'd try their mattress out, I did some more research on the product. These things intrigued me:
- ThermoGel Cooling Technology to regulate temperature – I hate feeling like I'm melting under the blankets, and my existing mattress seemed to hold heat
- Firm edge foam to support sitting on the side of the mattress – This is something I'd noticed as an issue with my existing mattress. Sometimes I'll sit on the edge of the bed to throw some makeup on, or put shoes on. Every time I sat, I felt like I was sinking straight to the foundation. Not a mattress killer, but something that caught my eye!
- Hybrid construction of springs and foam, with 50% more coils than other premium mattresses – I don't really care about the number of coils, but seeing as my existing mattress had none, I wondered if the coils were the way to go to prevent that middle of the night sagging.
I also wondered about the base: The Big Fig mattress comes with their super strong mattress base. Seeing as I already forked out money for an adjustable base, I searched to see if the Big Fig could be used with it: “The Big Fig uses flexible foam rails instead of a metal border wire, making it perfect for use with any adjustable bed base.”
To be honest, I've only used my adjustable base probably 6 times in the span of a few years, primarily if I have a cold or some congestion and need to be propped up. But it was nice to know that was an option.
Finally, I read about their 120 night trial: if you don't love the mattress, they'll come pick it back up for free and give you a refund.
With that, I agreed to try out the mattress. If it meant less back pain and more spooning, I would be a convert!
My existing latex mattress is a beast – it took 4 movers to get it up the stairs of our new house because it's completely floppy like a taco shell, but incredibly heavy. When the Big Fig delivery partners showed up with their White Glove service (delivery and set up in a room of your choice, plus haul away of old mattress), we had them set it up in a guest room that we hadn't finished yet, and they hauled away the old queen bed that was in there. Steve and I slept in the guest room for about 3 weeks while we evaluated the mattress. I didn't want to put it in our master bedroom, only to have to swap it back out again!
One of the first things I did was sit on the side of the bed, and I noticed how I didn't sink down to the base. When Steve got home from work, he helped me get this phenomenon on camera (pup Ruby with the assist!)
We both remarked it felt much firmer than the existing mattress, but it wasn't hard. And it actually wasn't as firm as I had feared after reading some customer reviews. I had no idea it was possible to achieve firm support, but with plushness.
The first few nights with the Big Fig mattress were an adjustment. Neither Steve or I had that kind of support in a mattress for a long time… or maybe ever? We were both a little stiff upon waking up, but it went away quickly after moving around a bit. Once we got to day 6, we had much less stiffness, and I started to notice a lot less hip pain in the mornings. The second week was good as well – Steve kept saying how he was a fan, and I was happy to have less persistent pain in my hip. By the third week, we both agreed that the new Big Fig mattress needed to go in our master bedroom. We moved the mattress to our existing adjustable base to see if it was an option. At this point, he and I were both converts with the mattress, and if we had to lose the adjustable base, we were totally good with that!
Turns out, the Big Fig Mattress will work on an adjustable base like they stated! It's not nearly as flexible as my old mattress, so I wouldn't want to adjust the mattress all the way up at the head or feet, but for the couple of times I year we might need to sleep elevated for colds or congestion, this totally works.
And I'm also happy to report that spooning no longer causes hip pain. The stiffness in my right hip is gone, which is such a relief. It's hard enough to get out of bed in the morning without worrying about pain first thing.
Questions about the Big Fig Mattress? Let me know – I'm happy to answer them!
Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post, but Big Fig did gift us this mattress for review. All opinions (and happy backs) are enthusiastically ours. This post does contain affiliate links, meaning if you click through and purchase something, I will earn a small commission at no difference in cost to you.
All photos, except for side-by-side and initial delivery, by Five By Five Photography
