Potty Training Twins: Part 6 of a Billion

I had 2 diapers left and a whole bunch of case lot sale shopping to do when the girls woke up this morning. First, we needed to drop off big brother at preschool. After that we headed out grocery shopping and there was no way I was going to jump on the potty train at the store, so we waited until we got home. 

Just look at these cute faces. They are SO ready to be big girls!

After we finished our errands, picked brother up, and came home for lunch, the girls asked to have their diapers changed. I took them to their room to show them the now empty box of diapers. 

I told them they were all gone. They accepted it pretty quickly. I thought there would be a fight, or at the very least, a struggle. There wasn't.

I let them choose the underwear they would be wearing for their naps. (Did I mention they have been waking up dry from naps?)

They did great. No wet underwear when they woke up.

I took them to the bathroom so they could try to go potty. After they gave it a good 15 minutes worth of "effort" (aka sitting there asking to watch movies on my phone) I let them get up and we didn't put their underwear back on. They KNOW they aren't supposed to go on the floor. If there was nothing there to catch it, well, I could hope they'd figure it out faster.

Now the hard part.

Or not...

I lined the hallway and high traffic areas with towels, then we rounded up some art supplies to make new potty/sticker/reward chart things. I explained to them that when they go potty they'd get a sticker on their chart and a sticker to wear. When they went potty 6 times in the toilet they would get a princess crown, and when they went 12 times they'd get a princess wand. (Thank you Dollar Tree) 

They wanted to color, so I let them help as I threw together a couple quick (and NOT cute) charts.

After that we grabbed some games and started playing on one of the towels in the hallway, for, you know, close and quick access to the bathroom.

They had fun. I had to have a couple talks with big brother who kept wanting to go outside, but after a little encouragement he decided inside was fun too. 

The girls did great, and by great I mean they didn't have a single accident for almost 5 hours! But they didn't go AT ALL in that time either... I promptly filled up their water cups and let them have pretzels (to make them thirsty) while we played.

They both told me their bellies hurt, so I knew they were holding it in. 

I decided to have them try again. We sang songs. We read books. I let the water run for a little subliminal encouragement... nothing.

So I let them go play, but I set a timer to remind myself to have them try again. After about 5 minutes we went back to the bathroom and tried AGAIN. 

Same story. Nada.

I let them leave the bathroom once again. They asked to watch a show, so I turned on "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about That!" (Hello, book family!) and gave the girls cups FULL of juice and had them sit on a towel while I put away a few straggling groceries. My kids RARELY drink anything besides water or milk, so the juice was a huge treat and they guzzled it. My plan to force their bladders to work was right on schedule. Anytime I left the room they were in today, I would tell them that if they needed to go potty to RUN (I would say this very emphatically) to the bathroom and I would come help them. 

Only a few minutes after David got home from work, another timer went off saying it was time to try again. I was in the middle of hauling the last load of groceries downstairs to the food storage room, so I told David to pause their movie and herd all the kids in the bathroom.

Maybe it's because she's a daddy's girl, or maybe all the liquids finally caught up with her, but Melanie peed in her potty on that attempt! We were all so excited. We rewarded her with praise, high fives, stickers, and of course Daddy brought her a little treat too. We could tell she was proud of herself and we could tell Hailey was watching the whole thing. As she watched her sister receive all of the praise and rewards, she got the most determined look on her face and she stayed on her potty for another 5 minutes after Melanie left the room. And then she pooped in her potty!!! She was SO excited, and that's all we really needed to get the ball rolling I guess.

Still not a single accident all day. Hailey made multiple trips to the potty- going every time- because she wouldn't let it all out in one attempt. She was learning what the feeling was though, and she could hold it long enough to get to the bathroom. Melanie only went a couple times, but when she did go, she went a LOT. I didn't give Hailey a sticker on her chart every time she went, because I wanted to keep it a little more fair for her sister who was essentially going the same amount. So they will both most likely get their princess crowns tomorrow (unless we have to start completely over...) And after a couple treat rewards, Mama got a chocolate reward too. Running to the potty 6 times in and hour is exhausting! 

I did put them in Pull-ups when I put them to bed tonight, but I explained that they are just underwear for nighttime and they don't go potty in them. I also talked to them about what to do in the morning when they wake up and need to go potty. I talked to big brother about how he can be a big helper to his sisters, and when they earn their princess crowns, he will also get a treat if he helps a lot. One of the things we talked about is that if I didn't hear the girls saying, "Potty" he could come get me. About 10 minutes after I put them to bed tonight, he came into my office to tell me one of the girls was crying and saying, "potty". I thanked him and ran upstairs. Hailey was quietly talking, so I went in their room and asked her if she needed to go. She said she did, so I took her to the bathroom. Her Pull-up was still dry, and she once again, went a tiny bit in her potty. Melanie said she didn't need to go, so I didn't make her. They have been asleep for a couple hours now, but we will see how the morning goes. (I'm anticipating a groggy 6 am pit stop) 

I was talking to David before dinner tonight and asked him, "Wouldn't it be funny if after a year of on-and-off potty training attempts it really only took us one day?". I'm not expecting tomorrow to go as smoothly, but I wouldn't mind if it did! Potty training is a lot less frustrating when you're not cleaning up urine... I needed today. And if there is any hope whatsoever for these twins to grow up NOT wearing diapers, they did too. I'll call it a win. Because we're winners. 

Tomorrow is another day... Once again, wish me luck!

Potty Training Twins: Part 5 of a Billion

Oh no... I hopped on Facebook today and I was told I had "memories to look back on". I followed the notification link and found out that one of my "memories" was my blog post "Potty Training Twins: Part 2 of a Billion".... ugh... I've been at this for over a year! In all fairness, we have taken MONTHS off in the attempt. We tried for a few days straight last Fall, and we have been working on it off and on since then. Part of that is my fault because it's a LOT of work and I keep finding better things to do with my time than clean up accidents and pull my hair out. Part of the fault lies with my 2 stubborn little ladies.
I have heard from many people that "they'll do it when they're ready". I honestly don't know how much more "ready" they can be! They beg me to change their diaper as soon as they go in it. They will take off their diapers because they're too wet. They will undress themselves. They will help me change themselves. They will NOT go potty in the bath tub. And a few days ago we found them pretending to change each other's diapers... The only thing apparently they are NOT ready for is to actually go in the toilet or their little potties. Ugh...
Every time I ask them if they need to go to the bathroom or if they want to wear underwear, they say, "No. Diaper." Which loosely translated means, "No thanks, I'm good. I'll just wear a diaper for the rest of my life just like all the other twins in the world because it is IMPOSSIBLE to train us to use the facilities."
One of the little potties has been turned into a step stool because that's all it's good for at the moment.

To be honest, I THINK about potty training way more than actually doing something about it.
Last week when we really put some effort in it, the girls wore underwear for the majority of the day 3 days in a row. They didn't go potty in the bathroom once. Not a single time. Actually, that's a lie. Hailey had an accident all over the bathroom floor. Other than that, they would run around and play (basically as far away from me as possible) and then I'd hear them scream my name. Instead of going anywhere near the bathroom, they'd hobble over to me (you know, trying not to let their wet underwear touch their legs) and in their cute little overwhelmed voices tell me they went potty. On a positive note, they wore underwear for nap time all 3 days and they woke up dry each time! After day three, Melanie started telling me a while after she'd had an accident. Like, "Oh, by the way Mom, I peed like 20 minutes ago. Thought you'd like to know." (That's where I started pulling out my hair...) She didn't even care. So we lost the underwear completely. Then, they started wandering outside... without any pants on... Yeah, that didn't last long.
There was no reward system being used because nothing was happening in the progress department. Their big brother started preschool last week. We are involved with a co-op group and I was the teacher for the first day and the helper for the second, so the girls got to join us. After our second class, I had a few weeks off from teaching. I would be dropping Jackson off at other houses every Tuesday and Thursday for a few weeks. I decided to tell my girls that they couldn't go to preschool because they were too little. Because they were still in diapers. On Tuesday we dropped Jackson off at preschool and Melanie cried and cried because she couldn't go. Being the mean mom that I am, I thought to myself, "Yes! Maybe this will be just what we need!" So I took the girls home, and explained to them that if they could learn to go potty in the toilet like big girls that they could start going to preschool again (at least when it was my turn to teach, I had no idea what I was going to do if this actually worked). I asked them if they wanted to wear underwear. I was so hopeful up until they both told me no and pooped in their diapers 5 minutes later...
That about sums up my last YEAR of potty training twins... or NOT potty training them really...
So, what is my plan moving forward? First of all, I'm not giving up. I do NOT want to be changing their diapers when they are 3.
See this box of diapers?

It's almost empty. Now we do have other new boxes (my husband found a deal online), but I THINK I'm going to show this to my girls and tell them that's all the diapers we have left. I'll let them run around tomorrow without underwear (covering my floors with towels of course) and maybe bribe myself a little. Obviously attempting to bribe them isn't working... even if I have 2 purple princess crowns and wands to give them if they can get out of diapers...
Wish me luck! (again)