Here is our potty training experience (so far).
Readiness: The girls have shown some interest/signs to potty train, Ella lets us know when she has pooped. Josie has peed on the floor and said "peepee" while at Grandma's, they know what the potty is and follow me to the bathroom when I go, etc. With these signs, I thought we could give it a whirl. I had asked our doctor if I was crazy to start potty training them this early and she stated "No. We recommend 2-2.5 for girls." She did mention they were preemie and that could delay them, but encouraged me to try and if goes terrible to just try again in a few months.
Pre-Training: We had introduced the potty to the girls around 18months old. We sat them on it usually before bath and other random times. They learned "peepee" and "poops" are words for what we do on the potty. We read books. We "caught" Ella on the potty a few times and praised her big. We talked about how big girls use the potty and Grandma S. even bought them "big girl undies" at Christmas. We had let them try them on right after Christmas and they LOVED them.
The Training Program: My good friend/fellow mommy, potty trained her son using this program and spoke highly of it and gave me a good gist of the program. I thought it sounded like something we could do and ordered the book. Joey and I both read it so we were on the same page. The very shortened version is you put the kids in underwear and tshirt for 3days, don't leave the kids side and say "tell me when you have to go potty (about 300x/day)." Then you need to "catch" them when they pee and get them to the potty so they finish and then the connection should be made. Lots of praise and lots of accidents are all to be expected. This program tackles night and day time PT and makes you throw all diapers away and does not encourage pull-ups. So from day 1 your kid is underwear only from this point on. It is recommended for children 22-28 months and the girls are 25, right in the middle.
Organization: I had planned our time to do this for a three day weekend. We reviewed the materials, made sure we had enough undies and I went through to see how many sheets and mattress pad covers we had. I wanted to do this while we were stuck inside because of the cold and not miss anything when it is nice outside come spring. I really thought Josie was ready and was a little on the fence about Ella, but maybe she would follow her sisters lead. We would use fruit snacks as a reward because Josie is always asking for them, but never gets them ;)
Day 1- aka HELL
We wake up, throw all the diapers away with the girls and tell them they are big girls and they get to wear big girl undies now. We both have very positive attitudes.
We went into the bathroom and explained peepee and poops now all go in the potty and they need to tell us when they need to go potty. Pushed fluids early on to get things moving. Josie was the first to have an accident and she even stated "peepee" when she did it and I thought this should be easy if she knew she peepee'd. WRONG! I was actually going to tally up the accidents each one had and compare to days come, too many to even tally and I lost count. Well the day quickly became a BLUR of so so many accidents and the phrase "tell me when you have to go potty" and the racing to the potty. At some point Ella stuck the potty seat on her head and it got stuck and we had to butter her head to get it off. Of course, J had to go right at that time. It was starting to get old by lunch time.
We did have some fun mixed in there!
Daycare and rest of week: Everyone was wondering how it went and I said this program is awful and would not recommend it for twins. The girls were in undies though, and told Liz when they needed to go potty. They didn't have a single accident. Joey came home from work on Tuesday and had some cold sores and he thought they were from the stress of the weekend. Here we are in to the next week and ella has pooped in her undies everyday except Monday and have had just a few accidents with both. I would say it's mostly a success as we still have some learning/tweaking to do, but I'm afraid it's too early to call it a success. I will tackle night time training later, like maybe summer when I am off work. I am also quickly realizing how much more work this is. There is more laundry, more trips to that bathroom which they need help with and now I have to got back to taking a diaper bag. I may have said at one point this week that I want to put them back in diapers because it will be easier (only kinda joking ;) To end on this post I would like to say I WILL NEVER DO THIS AGAIN!
Then, Josie didn't nap and to make things worse was screaming bloody murder. Joey and I did not have any downtime to do anything. It was horribly intense. About 5pm-ish, after Ella had dribbled about 20x in an hour and me taking her to the bathroom those 20x to not pee and then 30 seconds after leaving the potty, empty her bladder in the living room, I stated to Joey, "this is for the birds." When we take one girl to bathroom, the other follows. The second kid is usually not helpful and tries to pull the toilet paper, or wipes, gets in the way and just adds to the frustration. I'm trying to praise one kid and then I'm yelling at the other to stop getting into stuff and leave us alone. I had to start to shut the door on them to leave us alone. But my stubborn self, dug my heels in and said we've made it this far just keep going. Night time came and no diapers were to be used at night so we put them to bed and by morning we had 6 accidents to clean up between the two of them. I had trouble getting back to sleep after each one. This was worse then infant twins.... Praise the lord day 1 was over.
Day 2- Sleep deprived hell
Josie woke up from an accident at 6am and was up for the day. She remained in undies and a t-shirt and we kept on her, to tell us when she needs to go potty. Joey and I were so tired we had pizza for lunch and supper. A blur of accidents but also some successes. Josie had pooped and peepee'd on the potty quite a lot, you could tell she was getting it. She napped and stayed dry, Ella did not stay dry. Both kept saying they needed to use the potty to extend not taking a nap. Ella pooped in her undies and had many accidents, but she had some successes. We were over this potty training thing but knew we had seen some improvement. Joey was losing his cool, which never happens and when he does, its not good. Night time, Ella wet the bed 3x again and Josie 2x. Exhaustion, Frustration and doubt weather we should have done this are very high at this point. Swear words were flying (not at the girls AT ALL) and I sent a text to my friend that I was going to shoot myself and then I wanted her to shoot me too, just to make sure.
Day 3-aka "Eff this BS"
Joey and I are at our wits end. We are OVER this potty training thing. We are soooooo tired and frustrated. The three girls in the house all end up crying this day. Josie begins her day at 5am after an accident and won't go back to sleep. She's a hot mess all day long because she is tired. My patience are gone from lack of sleep and I'm not dealing with things well. The 50 bazillion FALSE ALARMS are about enough to make me snap and then Ella poops in her underwear. If there is no improvement I say I am going back to diapers. Why am I doing this???? I do reflect and realize I am trusting Josie a bit more today though. Nap time rolls around and Josie is refusing to nap. She is screaming her head off and is so worked up. I can't handle this. I need her to nap!!!! I try to rock her only to put her down in her crib and she wakes up screaming immediately. I even tried benedryl :( At one point, I totally lose my cool and eventually have to put her down and walk out. I gather my "cool" again get Josie and she doesn't take a nap and I apologize to her.
Day 2- Sleep deprived hell
Josie woke up from an accident at 6am and was up for the day. She remained in undies and a t-shirt and we kept on her, to tell us when she needs to go potty. Joey and I were so tired we had pizza for lunch and supper. A blur of accidents but also some successes. Josie had pooped and peepee'd on the potty quite a lot, you could tell she was getting it. She napped and stayed dry, Ella did not stay dry. Both kept saying they needed to use the potty to extend not taking a nap. Ella pooped in her undies and had many accidents, but she had some successes. We were over this potty training thing but knew we had seen some improvement. Joey was losing his cool, which never happens and when he does, its not good. Night time, Ella wet the bed 3x again and Josie 2x. Exhaustion, Frustration and doubt weather we should have done this are very high at this point. Swear words were flying (not at the girls AT ALL) and I sent a text to my friend that I was going to shoot myself and then I wanted her to shoot me too, just to make sure.
Day 3-aka "Eff this BS"
Joey and I are at our wits end. We are OVER this potty training thing. We are soooooo tired and frustrated. The three girls in the house all end up crying this day. Josie begins her day at 5am after an accident and won't go back to sleep. She's a hot mess all day long because she is tired. My patience are gone from lack of sleep and I'm not dealing with things well. The 50 bazillion FALSE ALARMS are about enough to make me snap and then Ella poops in her underwear. If there is no improvement I say I am going back to diapers. Why am I doing this???? I do reflect and realize I am trusting Josie a bit more today though. Nap time rolls around and Josie is refusing to nap. She is screaming her head off and is so worked up. I can't handle this. I need her to nap!!!! I try to rock her only to put her down in her crib and she wakes up screaming immediately. I even tried benedryl :( At one point, I totally lose my cool and eventually have to put her down and walk out. I gather my "cool" again get Josie and she doesn't take a nap and I apologize to her.
Ella was woke up from her sister so she doesn't nap either. By 3:30p, I say we need to leave the house, not for the girls, but for our sanity. We head to the mall so the girls can ride the small little rides inside. Not sure how it is going to go, but realizing we NEED this, we leave. Much to our surprise, we had no accidents and both told us they had to potty, and went, in public. Then I decided I was breaking the program rules, I was over the whole night time thing and put a pull up on them both. I was going to sleep and I had to go to work the next day. I will work on night time training later during the summer. Call me a quitter fine. Josie still cried at bedtime. She stripped naked, said potty a thousand times and cried for 45 minutes. I was done. Done with everything. She was going to cry herself to sleep and I was going to into the basement. Joey saved the day and she finally went to bed.
Daycare and rest of week: Everyone was wondering how it went and I said this program is awful and would not recommend it for twins. The girls were in undies though, and told Liz when they needed to go potty. They didn't have a single accident. Joey came home from work on Tuesday and had some cold sores and he thought they were from the stress of the weekend. Here we are in to the next week and ella has pooped in her undies everyday except Monday and have had just a few accidents with both. I would say it's mostly a success as we still have some learning/tweaking to do, but I'm afraid it's too early to call it a success. I will tackle night time training later, like maybe summer when I am off work. I am also quickly realizing how much more work this is. There is more laundry, more trips to that bathroom which they need help with and now I have to got back to taking a diaper bag. I may have said at one point this week that I want to put them back in diapers because it will be easier (only kinda joking ;) To end on this post I would like to say I WILL NEVER DO THIS AGAIN!
