Potty Training Twins

 

Potty training twins is a huge undertaking on its own, but then you add in another baby and Oh LORD, it’s difficult. Also, remember when my life in Manhattan seemed glamorous last week? We are definitely changing gears now!

This is not a “how-to” guide, nor is this a “here’s everything I did perfectly” article.  I am sharing things that worked, things that absolutely did not work, and our favorite tools and essential things for this stage.

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Essentials for Potty Training

 

1. Oxo Travel Potty /Character Underpants /Comfort Potty/ Oxo Travel Potty Bags

 

Usually little Lily was happily unrolling the entire roll of TP while waiting on her bro and sis because… just where are you supposed to put the baby while the other two are potty-ing? I never figured that one out…

In the end, there was no magic wand, and no special book that completely worked. The only thing that works is to be consistent. 

Right before the twins turned three they seemed interested, and so we introduced the potty and let them choose character underpants. No bells and whistles for our potty, just this one and it has worked perfectly. It takes up very little space and I knew we couldn’t deal with one that sings, lights up, or makes noises because then we would REALLY never get out of the bathroom. We got serious in May.

The Thing that Really Worked…and almost made me lose my mind…

Set the timer! The most significant thing that helped us turn the corner was using a timer. For three days straight in May, the twins ditched Pull Ups and wore only underpants. They were 3 years, 5 months – for reference. I set the timer every 20-30 minutes, and every 20-30 minutes of those three days we marched, stomped, or danced into the potty. There was a huge change after that.

After the first day I could hear the timer in my sleep. I almost went bananas the next two days, but this was the best way to get into the practice of going.

Then, we found this!

We were doing well, but it felt like we couldn’t leave the house. I saw another mom use this crazy amazing travel potty at the park. She told me all the details and I got one immediately. We have a stroller the size of a smart car, so I can always make a private corner at the park or beach, and you can use it in the mini-van. Thank you, mom at the park! These bags go inside the potty and they are worth every penny.

However, there were still some accidents.

And then…My husband found the answer.

I don’t mean to sound annoyed at him, but do you know how many hours I put into potty training research? If you are a “google professional” like me, then you can imagine how much.  In this case it was completely useless.

One day around this time my husband took our son shopping and let him pick out the kind of Pull Ups he wanted. Inside the box was the book, Cooper’s Big-Kid Day and it explained Pull Ups special charts with Mickey and Minnie reaching their “BIG GOAL”. They became absolutely obsessed with getting their stickers on their charts and that pushed us another step further, as did the Pull Ups phone calls on You Tube.

 

Not only do my kids think these calls are REAL, they feel super accomplished when the “phone rings” and it’s for them.

Ok, Pull Ups people, I get it. This is your thing and we applaud you. I wanted to do it all on my own, but turns out- this stuff worked! Between the Mickey/Minnie chart and the “phone calls” after a potty, we were rockin’ and rollin’ with the potty training. Seriously, this chart made such a difference.

P.S. I have nothing to do with the Pull Ups company, it just turned out their program genuinely worked for our family.

 

As a final note, one more thing added to our success. We waited to fully train at a time when nothing out of the ordinary was going on. The kids’ schedule has been strict, bedtime rarely changes, and I think that has been so helpful. If we had done it and then tried to go out of town or do other vacation/travel stuff it wouldn’t have worked.  Read about our lovely quiet summer here!

And that’s it! Who in the world knew that I could have so much to say about potty training twins??

I’d love to hear from you! What’s your favorite potty trick? How did you make it happen? Or, let’s just make a plan to have cocktails because potty training is seriously crazy!

 

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