My first body pillow - and it's a doozy! {review}

I've never had a body pillow before. But after having hip replacement, I found that I was stuffing pillows between my knees to keep the "bad" hip comfortably in place. I'm a side sleeper, so my knee was always at an angle to my body, twisting my spine and putting undue pressure on that artificial hip joint.

CSN offered me a gift code so I could get a product to review on my blog and after some deliberation I chose this one, the Sarah Peyton Memory Foam Body Pillow.

Good choice, if I do say so myself. :)

When it came in the box, I was a little surprised...the box was small and HEAVY! Surely my new body pillow couldn't be in this box?! But the pillow had been compressed very tightly and then rolled up for shipping. When I unrolled it, I thought no way. Then I noticed the little sticker that said to give it up to 48 hours to uncompress before using.

So I had to wait a couple of nights before I could try it out. After a few hours, I checked on it and lo and behold, it had tripled in size already! I waited the full 48 hours before using it, and by the time I did use it, the pillow was fully uncompressed.

This thing is huge! I'm 5'6" and it's at least 4' long - quite long enough to support not only my knee but my ankle as well (which was a problem when using standard pillows). I LOVE IT!! It's soft but firm. The memory foam is amazing. Once you get settled comfortably, the pillow conforms to your individual shape and you're all set for several hours of comfortable snoozing and rest.

The pillow is rather heavy, I admit, because it is literally stuffed full of memory foam. Very substantial. Having never experienced a body pillow before, I was expecting something about like a regular king-size pillow only longer. This is truly a remarkable product and a bargain at that price. Not at all the flimsy long pillow I was expecting.

Having this firm but soft support underneath my leg and knee, when I sleep on my side my spine is no longer twisted and I don't wake up with a backache anymore. Also, sleeping on my side meant my arm and shoulder were twisted as well, but now I have support there too because this pillow is long enough to go from my ankle to my elbow. My spine no longer screams at me for the nightly abuse. Highly recommended!

{Disclosure: CSN provided me with a gift code in order to purchase a product to facilitate my review. No other monetary consideration was involved and my review was not influenced in any way.}