HELP needed: short arms and hands....

[JIRO's Bass]

Hi!
I'm quite new with the bass, but not with instruments.
I'm a short person (around 1,55m) with short arms and fingers, using a regular size bass. I'm having some hard times and hoping for advice

1. When I stand up and play, my wrist isn't straight, and I have no idea how I should hold the bass in a good way so that I don't get pain in my left hand wrist. I am holding the neck near myself, but because of short arms I can't make it with the 1st and 2nd strings. My wrist is bent anyway... But when I sit and play I can adjust and have my wrist straight (as many says is important). Any good advice?

2. My hands are small and my fingers too. So I can't move that fast with my left hand fingers through the frets. How should I practice to make the moves over the frets faster? Some songs I've been practicing on are quite fast with the fingering, and sometimes it's difficult to hang on.. Hope for advice!

3. And one question about picking.. Some good points when practicing up and down picking on 8-beats??

Thanks for taking time! (^O^)/