breastfeeding a newborn

hi! i'm rachel. this video's going to show how to do front wrap cross carry with a newborn in a woven wrap. the first thing i'm going to do is find the middle marker of my wrap. i put the middle marker at the middle of my chest. i hold that with one hand. with the other hand reach behind me and find the top edge of my wrap. i bring that up and over my opposite shoulder, so that it spreads nice and wide across my back. do the same on the other side. bring it across my back and over the opposite shoulder. so now i have a horizontal pass in the front

which i am going to bunch now and two tails. at this point i'm ready to pick up my baby. this is ellie. she's two months old. i hold her as if i'm going to burp her. i take one hand through the horizontal part and guide her feet through. i seat her on the bunched pass. i take a moment to position her before i do anything else. i make sure her knees are higher than her bottom.

she has a gentle curve of the spine, and head nice and high on my body so i can easily kiss it. now that i have her positioned, i will simply shape the wrap around her body. i take the top edge of the wrap and spread it over her back. i bring it to the nape of her neck. i bring the bottom third of the wrap in between us. the bottom edge of the wrap makes a straight line from knee to knee. i can reach in from the side to bring the fabric up between us and guide the knees higher than the bottom. this helps her hold her legs in the m shaped position.

the next thing i want to do is tighten. i keep one hand on her. with the other hand, i find the top edge of my wrap (the part closest to my neck). i lift my elbow out a little bit so the wrap doesn't get caught under my arm. i pull the top and tighten. then i pull the middle of the width and the bottom. i hold the tail with one hand. with the other i feed any slack that is caught under my arm toward the back. i do the same thing on the other side. i pull the top of the wrap (closest to my neck) to tighten, while holding my elbow up. this keeps wrap slack from being caught under my arm. then i tighten the middle of the width and feed the slack to my hand. i tighten through the bottom of the width, and feed that slack down to my hand. so the secret to wrapping is to tighten each part of the wrap.

don't just pull the whole tail at once. take the time to tighten each individual strand of the width of the wrap. next i want to get a nice comfortable shoulder. i hold one tail at her bum, supporting her. i lift the other tail up, pull a little and shape it neatly on my shoulder. same on this side. i lift the tail, pull a little, and shape it neatly on my shoulder. i cross the two tails under her bottom. then i take both tails under her legs. i tie a double knot in back. now, i'm done! that's a front wrap cross carry! her knees are higher than her bottom. her spine is nice and straight.

if she seems a little crooked, i can lean forward and shift to help her straighten up (and retighten if needed) she's well supported through her back and to the nape of her neck. if this top edge is too loose, you can feed the slack around under your arm, over to the shoulder and then back to the knot. if your baby wants to nurse (and my baby wants to nurse) i can loosen the knot take the cross passes and pull them while bouncing gently. she is almost low enough to nurse. i will loosen a little more. now she's low enough to nurse. i'm going to shift her to the side we want to nurse on. then from here, you reach under the shoulder strap

and lean forward a little bit (while supporting your baby) to latch on. the secret is to lean forward a little and aim your breast up toward baby. leaning forward helps you get baby latched. and then you're nursing! it's not always hands free, especially with a newborn. i find i usually need to keep a hand on the baby's head or on my breast to help baby maintain the latch. if i want a little more privacy, i can spread the cross passes. another thing i love to do for more privacy is just put a sun hat on baby. then i can still see her whole face while she nurses, but there's a little more coverage.

when you've finished nursing, you don't want to leave the baby in this low position that they were in to nurse. what you want to do is re-position the baby to a high, tight carry. if baby has fallen asleep, you can do this without disturbing them. you want baby's head high on your chest. i put one hand at the nape of her neck and one on her bottom. i lean forward a little bit and then lift her up on my chest where i want her. leaning forward prevents pushing her into a curled position while raising her higher on my body. it gets rid of the friction between us so i can re-position her easily. now holding her nice and snug with one hand, i tighten.

i take each tail, pull it snug and then feed the slack down, tucking it under her knee. i do the other tail as well, pull to tighten, feed slack back toward the knot. i tighten the knot and tie a double knot. the top edge is a little loose, so i feed some slack under my arm, across my back and over to my shoulder. see all that extra slack! i take that and feed it back down and toward the knot. i find the slack and pull it through the half knot. i could also just retie the knot.

when i'm done i tie a double knot. now she is once again nice and high on my body. if i want more support for her head while she's sleeping, i can take one cross pass and spread it out over her back and the back of her head. sometimes that gets a little extra slack. i tuck it under her leg. you can also feed it back through the knot. that gives her some extra support for her head. i can still fit two fingers under her chin. i can see her whole face. she's well supported and i can go about whatever i need to do! that's front wrap cross carry! thanks!