Day 36: Temperament and sleep

I'm still not done reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Marc Weissbluth, but the book's discussion of infant temperament made me wonder how much Mari's temperament affects her sleep.

The widely accepted measures of infant temperament are as follows (more details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperament#Nine_Temperament_Characteristics_of_Thomas_and_Chess):

Activity (General motion and energy):  Mari is pretty squirmy, always has been. Even when she's on her back she's always kicking and flailing in a jerky way. Though she's not yet creeping or crawling, I would put her activity level at fairly high.

Rhythmicity (Regularity of bodily functions): Mari is definitely not regular or predictable. Today was a fairly good day -- she napped regularly and was pretty happy and energetic. But I swear, I didn't do anything differently than I did yesterday, when she hardly napped at all. I can never predict when she'll nap or for how long, when she'll poo, how much she'll eat, etc.

Approach/Withdrawal (first reaction): Hmm, I'm not sure on this one. Mari has some pretty fierce stranger aversion, so she's definitely withdrawing when it comes to people. But she's not necessarily fearful of new places, experiences or tastes, as long as we're with her.

Intensity: Mari is very intense. When she's happy she's ecstatic. When she's unhappy she screams like a dying jet engine. She can careen between the two in less than a second.

Mood: Not sure I get this one. Mari's moods vary a lot, but don't most babies' moods vary? When she's well-rested she's generally cheerful. When she's not she's fussy. So I suppose she's somewhere in the middle of the scale.


Persistence: Mari is very persistent, for better and for worse. When she was learning to roll over or to sit up it was all she wanted to do for days. She can also be extremely persistent in crying and resisting sleep even when she's tired.

Distractibility: Mari is quite distractible, though she's not on the extreme end of the scale. She's very easily distracted by unusual or new sights, noises, and toys. Picking her up can distract her from fussing quickly, but it doesn't last. Same goes for novel soothing techniques -- they seem to work quickly at first, but she goes back to fussing quickly.


Threshold (sensitivity): Mari is very sensitive, especially to noises. She's easily startled by even not-so-loud noises such as a wooden block falling into a small box. Truly loud noises such as the sound of the vacuum make her howl. When she's sleeping she's very easily awakened even by tiny sounds such as the rustle of paper or the crinkle of plastic.

According to the book, intense babies also tend to be slowly adaptable, negative in mood and withdrawn. These traits make for a "difficult" temperament. Well, I'd say Mari is very intense but in the middle on the other supposedly related measures. So I suppose she has an "intermediate" temperament by the book's classification system. But Weissbluth also notes babies who are highly active and highly sensitive are also at risk of sleep problems, especially when routines are disrupted. This is obviously true for Mari. So despite her natural lack of regularity she really needs me to try my best to impose a routine and a schedule. Too bad it's so hard.

There are other ways of measuring temperament. According to The Baby Whisperer, Mari is "spirited" -- a baby who knows what she wants and doesn't want and doesn't hesitate to let people know, and loudly. (An abbreviated version of the quiz in the book is available here: http://quiz.ivillage.com/parenting/tests/knowyourbaby.htm)

Mari is also a "high needs" baby according to Dr. William Sears, the guru of attachment parenting. She fits all 12 of the characteristics listed here <http://www.askdrsears.com/html/5/T050400.asp> to a tee.

All this adds up to Mari not being hard-wired to sleep well. Dr. Sears has a good article about it here: http://www.askdrsears.com/html/5/T050900.asp. So I suppose sleep will always be somewhat of a struggle. Still, the changes I've made so far have made a world of difference, though I clearly still need to do more work on trying to get her to fall asleep on her own, especially for naps, since I'm still having difficulty putting her down before the very-nearly-asleep stage.