Potty Trained*
At my moms of twins club meeting this week, I gave away my remaining stash of diapers. Pampers Cruisers are now gone from my house, and both kids are in underwear.
(cue heavenly chorus)
If someone asked me if my kids are potty-trained, I would say yes. Yes, they wear underwear. Yes, they do their business in the potty. Yes, accidents are more the exception than the norm.
The moms of young kids, of course, know all about the asterisks that qualify my ‘yes.’ They still require a lot of reminders. They can’t go by themselves. The bedtime Pull-Ups** are not always kept dry. For right now (and the immediately forseeable future) it’s a MUCH bigger hassle than diapers ever were.
And seriously, sometimes having two newly potty-trained toddlers seems like it’s going to push me straight over the edge. We bolt for the nearest bathroom (or discrete corner, or back of the minivan) at the slightest mention of “mommy, I need to use the potty.” They fight over who gets to use the little potty and who uses the seat on the big potty (we have one of each in both bathrooms). Daniel is king of the false alarm and, ahem, incomplete emptying. Rebecca refuses to “try” before we leave the house, but has to go the minute we arrive at the grocery store. There are times when it is incredibly hard for me to stay positive and patient, and there are times when I fail to do so.
But, still, we’ve made it over that first big hump. The diapers are gone, the undies remain largely dry, and the potty is in use.
For anyone wondering, I took much the same approach with Daniel as I did with Rebecca. Last Saturday, we put on the undies and ditched the diapers, cold turkey. Daniel proved much more open to suggestion and would pretty much pee on command. A handy skill, and his only accident on the first day was right before bedtime. Hell, we even threw caution to the wind and went out to dinner!
The trick is, of course, that they actually need the accidents to start to learn to listen to their bodies. The second day included a few more accidents, but also progress (i.e. a very small accident that then led him to finish peeing on the potty). Overall, I found this second go-around less tense and stressful than my weekend with Rebecca, I think because he could (and was willing to) go more frequently. On the other hand, I found myself a bit more tired and a bit less patient. I just wanted this part to be over.
I’m glad I separated the kids and didn’t attempt to work with both in the same weekend. I think we benefited from the ability to focus, and had all four of us been shut in the house for that much time, we might have killed each other.
Truth be told, I really have nothing to complain about. Both kids are reasonably reliable after only a very short period of time. Clearly, they were “ready,” whatever that might mean. That’s not to say there was a lot of talk of potty and all of that before we started. They seem to just have been cognitively/emotionally/physically ready. And so passes one of the last big transitions of babyhood. My big kids.
**Yes, we are using Pull-Ups for naptime and overnight. I don’t really think of them as a useful potty training tool, but I was not willing to mess with sleep in the name of the potty. I liked making the switch to Pull-Ups so that we could, even just in name, be totally done with “baby” diapers. We call them “night-time undies,” and while they aren’t always kept dry, Rebecca for one is quite distressed when she pees or poops in them during naptime. I take that as a good sign, and will try to ditch them for naps within a month or two.
Tags: potty training
February 17th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
I am glad things are going so well! And I needed this post as a chin-up to keep going. I am too tired to write my own potty-training post I think.
Jonathan did so, so well the first week that this second week of deliberately pooping and peeing in his clothes is driving me CRAZY. And poor Faith. As much as she has tried, I don’t think she has peed more than once in the potty in 12 days.
Jeez this is hard.
February 17th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
I love the potty training asterick (sp?). Nate is 100% trained but Alex still gets a star. Alex can not go overnight without a pullup. We’ve tried and tried and he pees in his sleep. He’ll wake up at 7AM in a completely wet cold bed. Oh and since he had a regression after ALREADY BEING POTTY TRAINED, he is now holding pooping until the nighttime pullup.
I keep reminding myself it is a process. Nate’s 100% there, eventually Alex will be 100% there. Hopefully before kindergarten.
LauraC´s last blog ..I think he’s ready for an allowance
February 17th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
That is so awesome. I’m not sure Michael is quite ready, but we are getting him used to getting on the potty. Our big advancement and I consider it huge is that he is willing to sit on the potty without crying, and will actually go to the bathroom when I ask if he wants to use the potty. He will also sit on it all by himself. When we initially got it, he would scream and cry and arch away from sitting. For me this is huge.
Amy´s last blog ..Bath Time
February 17th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
I’m glad it is going so well! I know the panic that “Mommy I go potty!” can bring from the backseat. We have busted out the travel potty on the side of many a road.
One other plus to pull ups, if they do decide they want to use the potty while wearing them it is much less of a hassle in the middle of the night to pull them down and then back up rather than un-diaper and re-diaper while half asleep.
BTW I saw your tweet about the M&M’s not being for you.. I totally think the trainer deserves one for every success too!
Mary´s last blog ..Wordless Wednesday – Go Go Go!
February 18th, 2010 at 11:28 am
Congratulations!!!It sounds like the you all did an amazing job!
February 18th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
I am so, so happy you guys are mostly there. I have a few questions. First, your kids are still in cribs, right? So, they really can’t be in underwear at night b/c they, obviously, cannot get out of bed to go. My daughter is in the same boat. Happy as a lark in her crib, so she is not in underwear at night. Her diapers are also pretty full in the morning, so I still have her in overnight diapers during the night. Are Daniel and Rebecca relatively dry in the morning? From what other moms have told me, I shouldn’t attempt underwear at night until she stays dry at night for a decent stretch.
February 18th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
WOOT!!! That just rocks.
Night time training is TOTALLY different…so yep. your kids are potty trained.
Burke *still* has accidents at night (not a lot, but it still happens). He’s a deep sleeper, so he doesn’t always wake up in time….and he’s 5.
The strange thing about the pull-ups…we thought Burke was ready for overnight undies long before Maggie was – his were usually dry in the morning, while Maggie’s were soaked. Turns out that Maggie was just lazy and used the pull-ups because they were easier than getting out of bed in the morning. (she’s been bone dry every morning for a long, long time now, but at an older age than your two.) Burke just liked that extra “comfort” of knowing if he HAD to pee, it wouldn’t make a mess…so his whole game was thrown off when we moved him to undies. Strange, huh?
So not ready to get Logan out of diapers. I mean, I’m ready to be a diaper-free house, but Logan shows very little sign of being ready to go to undies. Interest in the potty? sure … ready to use it always? nope.
Nancy´s last blog ..Way Back When-esday
February 18th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Congrats!! I totally did the Pull-Up at night thing for a while after my son was daytime trained. When he started waking with a dry Pull-Up he was able to switch over to underwear at night. Nighttime training is a different beast and it’s not unusual for kids to need a Pull-Up at night even up to age 6. So in my mind, daytime trained = trained!
February 18th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
CONGRATS! We just got rid of our diapers this week as well. It’s been about 2.5 weeks for Mark and he’s doing excellent, already out of pull-ups completely. Maria is in a pull-up at nap and bed time and still freaks a bit about #2 in the potty, but it’s going well. My twins are no longer babies. Gosh, I am in the same boat as you and know exactly how you feel.
February 18th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Yay, Daniel! Yay, Rebecca! And yay, YOU! How awesome to be all done with the baby diapers. Tiny has been doing great since we did our potty training boot camp almost 4 weeks ago, but Buba is still not ready. I’m hoping he will be soon. I know it will be harder (as you well described) once they’re both in underpants, but I’m eager to be there as soon as he’s ready.
So, do you already have a map that shows where all the bathrooms are at Disney?
reanbean´s last blog ..Wake-up Calls
February 19th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
We considered ours potty trained even when we used pull ups for sleep times. Its just the way it is. Ours will be FULLY potty trained in about 2 weeks. As soon as the pull ups are gone, we won’t be buying any more. She’s kept them dry now for two weeks. We are so excited.
ta*rge*t has convenient potty chair covers. they sit over the toilet and are great for taking with you on the run as their is no clipping. Be*d Ba*th and Be*yo*nd has the same ones as well.
February 20th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
HOORAY! What an accomplishment for everyone.
A and O were very easy to potty train as well, and basically initiated it themselves during summertime-being-naked-outside-in-the-kiddie-pool-with-potties-nearby. i have to admit i was a bit delusional with how easy the early stage was, and how hard the regression hit. i thought we had it in the bag until oz hit a poo regression a few months later, and then abel hit a month-long pee regression this past december. people had warned me it would happen and i just didn’t believe them. it was so difficult to be patient, because i knew how capable both were. but it passed and now after just turning 3 they both go independently, without any reminders needed. sometimes it blows me away to see these two little munchkins pulling their pants down, doing their business, pulling them up, flushing, washing hands, etc. it’s all happened awfully fast!
so if a regression should hit, my advice is to not make a big deal out of it and just stay the course and be consistent. it will pass, just like everything else, even if it seems like for freaking ever!