She hath wings

For 3 months, we have had three queen mattresses in our modest sized, over cluttered house, all in a bid to find support for my chronic back pain, triggered by weak core strength and lifting a 15kg toddler.

What was meant as a few days on the couch turned into two months for me, and I had almost given up hope. It was so strange to go to bed on the couch Christmas night and know that I didn’t yet have a bed I could comfortably lie in. I began to think of all the times I had complained about having a tiny, ugly bedroom with the khaki coloured “feature wall” and curtains recycled from Mum’s old family room. It seemed trivial. Sleep is all I needed!

We had bought a new mattress after two weekends of bed shopping and several tries of the one in the show room, only to find that the new one was nothing like it, and intolerable even with a mattress topper. We couldn’t return it, given that Sealy had sent a representative out to check it and decided it wasn’t faulty. We didn’t want to throw away hundreds of dollars either, having replaced THE BEST mattress of 20 years last year and already spent well over $1000.

In caution, we ordered a Koala mattress which friends had really liked, since their returns policy was generous,  but it didn’t suit my needs and the materials felt overly warm, even on the “Summer” side. Fortunately we could try it for a week then return it. Only my  husband could tolerate more than one day!

Just when I had no idea what to do, a relative suggested I try her Ikea bed. After Christmas, I spent a long time trying out the equivalent one in our local store, and I felt like I could make a go of it. My husband was able to bring  it home rolled up and leave it for three nights, camping out the backyard in a tent while I stayed on the couch minding the children, and finally I could try it with a mattress pad which made it a little spongier without compromising support. While it isn’t the amazing bed I started with all those years ago, I can finally get up without my back spasming and I even bought a better pillow made from memory foam, to team up with one of the ones I had.

It seemed like it would be a never ending saga trying to get rid of the two mattresses, but last year’s one went on marketplace for free today and the Sealy mattress was paid for and will be collected later this week. My husband had seemingly broken his toe on Saturday and had been sporting a moon boot having had it xrayed, yet without much pain. With the help of my teen son, he lifted mattresses in and out of house and car the last two days in a bid to give us some space and sanity again.

You may wonder why I’m sharing all these seemingly superfluous details with you. I want to show you that nothing is impossible and sometimes when it seems like there’s nothing but mountains (or mattresses!) in your way, there is hope.

Have a great day!