On September 14th at 4:55am I clutched a new little creature to my chest after 33 hours of labor. She seemed so foreign. It was so strange that just moments before she’d been inside me, faceless. Then that little face lit up! She opened her eyes, she cried, she latched onto my breast and as cliche as it sounds, I fell totally in love. Continue reading Luna Suli’s Birth Story
Tag Archives: holly beck obermeyer
Surfing 32 Weeks Pregnant
With only 6+ weeks to go before my little girl is born, I’m still surfing. Every week it gets a bit harder as my belly grows, but the waves have been good and i’m feeling great. I probably won’t be able to keep it up much longer. I’ll be bodysurfing soon, but for now i’m standing and stoked.
Surfing 7 Months Pregnant
I am determined to surf as long as possible into my pregnancy while taking it easy and listening to my body. I don’t catch many waves per session, my pop-up is slower and slower, but once I’m up it’s all good.
My midwife has advised me to slow down and stop surfing, but she’s not a surfer. I have several friends (who aren’t pro surfers) that surfed well into their 9th month of pregnancy. That’s my goal. So far, so good! 7 months and counting…
Surfing 25 Weeks Pregnant
I only get footage of myself surfing during retreats and since we just had six weeks off, it’s been a while since I posted any footage. My belly is growing. It’s getting more difficult to paddle and pop up, but once i’m on my feet, it feels ok. I’m trying to keep it mellow, but when a nice lip presents itself I hear the baby telling me, “mama, hit that!”.
It’s a Girl!
After reading about ultrasounds and the possible dangers to a fetus, we had decided not to have any more – not even to find out the sex of the baby. Then, we spoke to friends who advised us that an ultrasound may have saved their baby’s life by identifying issues in the womb that were then handled immediately after birth. Since our plan is to give birth at home, about 20 min from the nearest hospital, we decided it would be worth having one more quick scan to check the heart and other vital organs in case there was a problem that might lead us to change our birth plan. Continue reading It’s a Girl!
It’s A Race Between House and Baby – Part 2
I’m now just a half-week shy of being six months pregnant. Time is flying, my belly is growing, and the house is progressing more or less on schedule. It’s exciting to see the roof go on and know that pouring the concrete floor is next. After that, it’s time to decorate with paint and tile and all the fun things like kitchen counters, etc.
As of right now, it looks like the house just might be finished in time to move in a little before the baby comes. Fingers crossed! Click play below for a tour of the house in progress.
A Dog’s Guide to Hugging a Baby
We’re going to have to show this to Lobo!
Surfing 18 Weeks Pregnant
Every week I’m a little slower, a little more relaxed, but thankfully I’m still surfing and when I get a good wave I get excited enough to step on the tail and push it! This was our third week in Costa Rica. The waves were a bit smaller and I didn’t have any of my own boards so I was riding some funky shapes, but having fun with it. We’re done with retreats now until the end of May so the next video I post of me surfing, I’ll be 6 months+!
Welcoming a New Soul
According to several Eastern traditions including Kundalini Yoga, on the 120th day past conception the growing fetus acquires its soul. It’s kind of a strange and yet appealing concept for me to imagine an ocean of souls somewhere up there outside of our perception, waiting their turn to rejoin the hustle and bustle of life on Earth. I wonder if they’re assigned by some all-powerful deity or if there’s any choice in the matter. Maybe it’s some combination. God says to the soul, “here are three options, you have 24 hours of observation to choose which family you’d like to join.” It’s fun to imagine. Continue reading Welcoming a New Soul
Yogic Meditations
Our yoga teacher Nikki at Surf With Amigas is my favorite yoga teacher ever. She’s not all “woo woo” up-in-the-clouds, overly-spaced-out like so many yoga teachers can be, and yet she’s super spiritual and very tuned into the energy that surrounds us and emanates from us. She primarily teaches yin classes, which is exactly what I want post-surf, with quite a bit of guided meditation relevant to something that happened that day, the phase of the moon, or the changing season.
I’m busy during retreats and don’t always get a chance to participate in her class, but when I do make time to attend I’m always grateful. The other day we had a super shoulder-opener class that ended with an extra long savasana and a guided meditation. It was the most emotional I’ve felt in a yoga class since the first class I ever took with Nikki where I actually shed a few tears.
She asked us to imagine ourselves lying on the beach in the sand with the waves lapping up towards our feet. She vividly described the waves coming up one at a time, each one reaching further along our bodies until we were surrounded by warm water from toe to head. To be honest, I was so lost in the trance that I can’t accurately repeat what she was saying. I can say that I don’t particularly love the feeling of rolling in the sand or lying there as waves wash up over me. I imagined sand flooding into my bikini bottoms and wanted to get up out of the water. So I got up, walked a few feet further up the beach, and flopped down on a sarong in the shade of a big almond tree just above the high tide line. I looked down at the gentle shorebreak and saw my husband Kim and our baby holding hands, standing ankle deep in the water. As Nikki described the waves coming and going, I imagined them soaking Kim and the baby’s feet, then ankles, then knees, etc. I had dedicated the practice to nourishing the new life growing inside me. Nourishing the baby with the early experience of the sea. The delicious feeling of warm salty water washing over toes and then knees. I felt so happy and content to lay there and watch them enjoying the ocean together.
I could only see the baby from behind, a toddler with curly blonde hair, and I kept trying to tell if it was a girl or a boy. With each successive wave, the gender seemed to change. First I thought he was a boy, then she was a girl, and back and forth until I gave up trying to guess and just relaxed in the realization that the joy I felt was equal in either case.
I’m so looking forward to introducing our little one to the ocean.
Salt Water Mama 