Hi schiddy,
Welcome to the Mattress Forum! 
I appreciate you taking the time to chronicle some of your mattress shopping process, and in doing so it allows me the opportunity to provide a few additional comments for the benefit of those who may read this in the future.
While the model may have felt good to you in the store, one thing you can’t feel is quality and durability, and the major brands such as Sealy/Stearns & Foster, Simmons, and Serta all tend to use lower quality and less durable materials in their mattresses than most of their smaller competitors. These layers will tend to soften or break down prematurely relative to the price you pay, which is why I would generally suggest avoiding all of them completely (along with the major retailers that focus on them as well) regardless of how they may feel in a showroom along with any mattress where you aren’t able to find out the type and quality/durability of the materials inside it (see the guidelines here along with post #3 here and post #12 here and post #404 here).
You can also see my comments about the Consumer Reports mattress ratings and recommendations in post #2 here and in this topic. While they may be a good source of information about more “objective” purchases … as you can see I would consider them to be an unreliable source of information or guidance about purchasing a mattress and their “ratings” are somewhat nonsensical and meaningless. My thoughts are also shared by most of the more knowledgeable people in the industry (see post #5 here for an example). A more detailed objective analysis of the componentry, as outlined in the Mattress Shopping Tutorial, would be a much better guide and starting point for selecting a mattress.
Good luck with your new mattress, and thanks for posting!
Phoenix