It's Potty Time

OH goodness, well here we go with potty training!  I wasn't planning on starting the twins this early, but Raegan's pink Baby Bjorn potty chair was delivered Tuesday and she was all about using it.  So I figured ah, what the hell - let's try it.  I ordered her chair from Amazon along with a book by Leslie Patricelli.

Baby Bjorn potty chair

I thought the book was kind of dumb at first, but the kids wanted to hear it again and again!

My twins love this stupid book

Since potty training two toddlers simultaneously seems almost impossible, I turned to my most trusted parenting book The Multiples Manual for instruction.  Here is the method in a nutshell:

• Pick a day and commit to having your child wear undies all day (minus naps & bedtime to start)
• Starting when they wake up, put undies on and take them to the bathroom every 2 hours.  Don't waste energy asking if they have to go every 15 minutes 
• When accidents happen, don't resort to diapers!  They have to learn what happens when there is no diaper.  Just clean up and move on, no punishment.  
• If at the end of the day, your child had more than 4 accidents with no improvement and no success on the potty, they are not ready.  Wait a month and repeat the process. 
• If they had less than 4 accidents, repeat day one over again.  Expect that there will still be accidents but as long as they have fewer than 4 they are doing well!  
• Don't offer rewards for trying, offer rewards for going.  For us, we rap and dance a little song that goes like this "Go Rae Rae, go Rae Rae, you're a big girl, you went potty!  Oh yeah, whoop whoop!"  It's quite a scene, trust me.  
• After a few days with minimal accidents, offer a big incentive like a trip to the toy store if they can stay dry for 5 days.  Any longer is unrealistic because they will still have occasional accidents.
• If they can stay dry for 5 days, you will have successfully potty trained your child!  Go buy yourself a drink :) 

Yesterday was our test day and Raegan had 4 accidents, but also went successfully multiple times in the bathroom, Christian had 2 accidents.  So we repeated it today - Raegan had ZERO accidents, Christian had one but also did No. 2 on the toilet for the first time.  He even told Don he had to go potty after he had his diaper on at bedtime.  So…we'll do it again tomorrow!  Potty training can take six months or six days.  It all depends on the age of the child and if the child and parents are ready, not on creative parenting techniques.  Also, don't waste money on training pants.  It will only confuse your child and prolong the process.  Stick to diapers until they are ready to use the bathroom.  

I love this "test day" process because it doesn't leave me stuck at home doing bootcamp for an entire weekend.  It's just one day of potential messes and clean up.  Seems way less daunting than other methods I've read about.  We even made it out to a play date and Target while doing our first two days!  Just keep entire changes of clothes in the car :)