Mattress Forum

My wife and I have been sleeping on an 8+ year old knock off memory foam bed which has been pretty decent save the last year or so when it started developing the typical "crater" I hear is so common. I'm 5"10", about 210, and my wife is 125 or so. I have been doing some research but not a lot and became interested in trying out some latex. Not willing to shell out several thousand I went with a mattress on Amazon, the ultimate dreams latex mattress (king size) from Ultimate Dreams bedding. I believe it has a 3" layer of talalay latex (no idea of the quality of this), on top of a 5.5" convoluted foam base layer, with an inch or so of extra stuffing on top. Anyhow it seems decent enough quality wise, (from what I can see), but I have to say I am missing the "sink in" feeling of the memory foam (my wife admits the same). It's relatively firm, and a bit bouncy - perhaps similar to a conventional spring mattress, which I find compels me to sleep on my stomach - I'm normally a side sleeper. 

Now, to further complicate my post, before tossing the old bed I decided to disect it. 6" of base foam, appearing still to be in decent shape, and 4" of memory foam which is starting to show some wear. Wanting to experiment, I ended up cutting the mem foam in half, to let our two boys try out on their twin beds. They are much lighter, (ages 8 and 3), and they like the mem foam very much, though it's not as good for jumping :). The old foam seems fine for them, (at least for awhile), however I am considering putting a 2" piece of base foam underneath this from FBM. This would be just to ease the bottoming out if Momma or myself wish to lay next to them.

Now for my questions:

1. Any advice on which of their (FBM) foams might be best for the 2" base layer on the kids mattresses? (HD36-R, LUX-R, HD36-HQ, or LUX-HQ). Assuming of course that FBM is worthwile at all.

2. Does anyone have any experience with FBM's mattress covers? I am leaning towards the Gray and White stripped covers for the kids beds, figuring a 6" depth would seal them up well. Currently we just have a fitted mattress pad over the old mem foam.

3. Regarding our bed, I have to admit after looking over FBM's site, I am very tempted to just get a 4" 5lb memory foam and lay it on the old base foam I have, again with a gray and white cover. Not sure what I'd do with the old (new) mattress, but if this proved comfortable ....

4. Or, might I be better served putting a topper on the new ultimate dreams latex mattress to soften it up? Perhaps a slab of memory foam or softer latex? One thing that is swaying me is after the years of dealing with trying to fit sheets on the old 13+ inch mattress, I do really love that the new mattress is only 10" tall, and of course a topper would throw out that advantage.

Thanks in advance for advice