Rumer Willis’ Baby Girl Is The Newest Member Of Family’s “Kooky Tribe Of Women”

Rumer Willis is in the throes of early motherhood. And while, yes, that means sleepless nights, diapers, and constant breastfeeding, when I talk to her by Zoom I can also hear that pure, blissful love and contentment radiate from her voice. Luella Isley Thomas Willis, her first child with partner Derek Richard Thomas, was born at home on April 18, and she was greeted by an incredible welcoming committee. “My sisters and my mom were there when she was born, and I feel so grateful to have been able to have them there for that,” Willis says. “Because we’re a kooky tribe of women and it was important to me to have them there to welcome the newest little lady to our tribe.”

Willis recently shared pictures from that experience on her Instagram account in which her mom, actress Demi Moore (happily in her “hot kooky unhinged grandma era”), holds Willis through labor pains. “What a gift to finally truly understand the depth of love that you have for me and my sisters because of my own endless well of love I have for my daughter,” she wrote.

Physically, she says, she mostly felt pretty good during pregnancy, but nevertheless found the experience “deeply humbling.”

“Because even if you have certain ideas about what it’s like to be pregnant or how you’re going to feel or whatever it is, the reality of it changes and it can be very different,” she says.

The shift prompted her to reassess her relationship with her body, specifically what she put in and on it. She turned to Surya, an artisan Ayurvedic spa that offers pre-and-post-natal treatments and guidance in addition to services one more traditionally associates with “spa.”

“I really, I had an amazing birth team, such incredibly strong, powerful women that really helped guide me to be able to just give birth in the way that I wanted, take care of my body in the way that I wanted,” Willis says.

Willis continues to lean on Surya services and products postpartum (she’s a self-declared “sucker for face products and is especially fond of the brand’s Balancing Face Oil and Collagen Cream). But it’s her partner who has been the bedrock of her support system. Thomas has taken on cooking all her meals, tending the house, and just generally “taking care of me and the house and everything so that I can really take care of her, which has been such a gift. We’re really working as a team.”

At one point she chuckles at just how well Luella seems to have fallen into a particular routine. “Because I do all of the input and feedings, [Thomas] takes care of the poop and the output. So now, whenever we’re going to change her or if she’s having any sort of tummy discomfort, as soon as he holds onto her, she immediately poops! It’s like she knows somehow that she’s with her dad and she is okay.”

Willis recognizes the level of privilege that allows this kind of teamwork and she’s grateful — she knows that not every family is able to have one parent wholly focused on “the fourth trimester” much less two — but she thinks the experience is important. “You’re getting to know yourself,” she says. “You go from being a parent in theory to being an actual parent. It’s overwhelming and beautiful. I’ve never experienced a time in my life where I’ve had such an interesting juxtaposition of navigating certain challenges with such immense joy and love.”

Willis seems to be firmly set in the present at the moment — getting the hang of parenting and learning more about her tiny human every day — but there are things she’s already looking forward to sharing with Luella. Trips to the farmer’s market, matching mommy and me outfits (she knows they’re “nerdy” but she doesn’t care”) and, of course, continuing to make memories with her “kooky” family.

“I want to share everything with her,” she says. “She’s my favorite person and my best friend, so I’m obsessed with her.”