Nursing Upright in the Wrap
4 weeks old, nursing in the FWCC
Soon I tried nursing upright in the wrap because I prefer wearing babies in the upright position, and because this position allows the baby to change breasts without the wrap having to be retied, and it is also the perfect position for burping.
I wrapped Annabelle upright, then lowered her down enough to put her mouth slightly higher than the level of my nipple. Then I just needed to make sure the parts of the wrap coming around her head were the perfect tension to hold her head right there. Then tie. I like the front wrap cross carry best for this, and the front cross carry works great too.
Nursing in the FCC, 1 week old
When nursing upright, Annabelle usually ends up slanted in a cradle/upright hybrid position. If she is nursing on the right side, then the wrap coming over my right shoulder is more bunched up, coming from behind her head to over my shoulder where it’s bunched away from my neck and right at the ball of my shoulder. The wrap going over the left shoulder is spread wide, covering Annabelle’s whole body and crossing the entire width of my shoulder to my neck.
In fact, I’ve found that my upright nursing carries sometimes end up looking like a cradle carry, though that wasn’t how I put her in! She won’t end up horizontal, but she does end up at various angles and rarely straight up and down. This is how it has worked out for us and it highlights for me the versatility of wrapping and the fact that you don’t need to worry about duplicating a precise position, but finding something that works well, even if it looks unlike anyone else’s version of a wrap job. So chill out, get your baby nursing and talk that wrap into holding baby in that position so you don’t have to!
The trickiest part of nursing in a wrap, with both cradle and upright positions, is getting the wrap to hold the baby’s head just right so you don’t have to. You have to realize that the wrap needs to do exactly the same job your hand or arm is doing when you hold the baby there, and the fabric certainly can be made to do that. Just persist in tightening or loosening or adjusting until you get it. A lot of adjusting can be done without taking your baby off the breast, and with your baby nursing, you may find you have uninterrupted time to get finicky with your wrap job!
Annabelle Nursing, 1 week old
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