Everything about having twins is uncharted territory. Fortunately we weren't new parents when we found out we were having twins so we had some semblance of an idea of what we were doing. I honestly can't imagine having twins as my first birth. The thought makes me shudder!
But now we're about to venture into new territory: potty training. The girls have been following me into the bathroom to "watch you mama?!?!?" for the last several months and are very well aware of the goings on. They know not to leave the bathroom until I've washed my hands and they fight over who will flush the toilet for me. When we were at Sesame Place I bought some small stickers to use for a potty chart for them. We have two potty chairs for them. We have the box of pull-ups to make life easier for them.
I am so hesitant to begin though. With potty training comes other issues that quite frankly, I'm not ready to deal with. They still sleep in cribs. Using the bathroom/potty chairs will inevitably lead to needing to sleep in BEDS. Sleeping in beds will lead to no naps. I can't live with the girls not napping. My sanity (what tiny shreds are left of it anyway) demand that they nap. By lunchtime they, and Drew, have had enough of each other and the silence that naptime brings recharges us all. The thought of it all makes me a bit twitchy.
I'm unsure how this new venture will go. Meg was trained before she was 2, and Drew wasn't even close to ready until he was just over 3. The girls seem excited about it, as the box of Dora pull-ups sits in the bedroom, waiting to be opened. My approach will be very laid back, as it was with Drew. I wonder though if those with twins have suggestions as to what worked for them, and what didn't. I'm pretty sure that when the time comes, I'll be throwing a "my house is diaper free" party though!
Monday, July 13, 2009
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6 comments:
Since my almost-3 year old is still running around in diapers, I have no suggestions on the potty-training front.
BUT, stop worrying so much about getting them into beds. Bear doesn't nap in his bed -- he always naps somewhere else. Either on the couch or, most likely, in my bed. For whatever reason, that works for him. I could never get him to stay in his room for nap time, so I don't bother. And, I promise he doesn't nap as well usually as he did when you were at my house!
Ok..bare in mind I have 2 boys, a fenced in yard, and. I live at a dead end street.
First go get your money back on the pullups. They r really worthless. My younger son peed in them and then sat on the couch. Get money back.take them to the store use that money and have them pick out "big girl pants". I got like 24 pairs.
With it being summertime, they love the pool in the backyard. They go naked, if they thought they had to pee they got out and went. Worked really good. Younger son would sit on potty, cuz he always needed to go #2. I searched around town for Elmo's Potty Time DVD, popped it in 1st time, older son was on the potty. He did have a few accidents, but we pushed along. We even went so far to put the potty chair in the living room so he could watch to and semi relax to go potty. With my older son too, he enjoys going in the shower, don't ask but it worked for us, so we went with it. So as of right now he is potty trained for going on almost 2 months. At night I do put diapers on him just to be safe, but they have all been dry.
Naps in bedroom, they never happen here, unless, they r misbehaving. They hav e their own couchs,they get their blankets and will fall asleep. Stick to your routine and u will be ok.
I only have 1 potty trained I'm waiting on my younger son still.
They sound so ready. Potty Training twins is actually easier than singletons -- because they take cues from each other, too. Check out my blog post about the method we used -- it was very successful. http://twinparenthood.com/2009/06/23/toilet-training-twins-triplets/
I would keep the pullups if I were you, even if only for trips out of the house. If they both have to go at once at Chik-fil-a, and the bathroom stalls are full, you could be asking for trouble.
Josie still napped for a long time after we switched her to a bed. Other than that, we had quiet time, where she had to stay in her room for an hour.
I did find that letting the kids go naked on bottom did help, since they didn't seem to want to poop into nothingness. I was hesitant to allow it in the house, though, because of the furniture.
I so dreaded potty training that I wasn't going to start until the girls turned 3. We watched Elmo's Potty Time from about 20 months on and they loved it. We had potties out and they could use them if they wanted but I didn't want to train. Mostly for the reasons you listed.
At 32 months A. demonstrated that she was pretty much trained and i was holding her back. I could have probably started much earlier but I'm soooo glad I waited. A. trained herself and R. followed her lead. We did spend a week where we stayed in the house all of the time and all of the furniture was covered in plastic but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I used the naked from the waist down approach and it went pretty well.
We used pull-ups over underwear when we left the house and found the pull-ups to help catch any accidents as we carried them to the nearest potty.
Cribs & Naps - we switched to beds not long before the potty training happened. Not fun. I have friends with twins who stayed in cribs and just used pull ups for naptime and bedtime without a problem. That said, we also had several months where they had "quiet time" instead of naptime where they were required to play quietly in their room for two hours in the afternoon. Elizabeth Pantley's Nap solution book has great advice on this.
Good luck!
We did have twins first, and it was very stressful. Though I was also glad I didn't have a 2 year old running around to care for. So, there's that.
Potty training? We did it in the summer, offered M&M's (1 for peeing 2 for pooping) and it worked very quickly. They were 2 1/2. The "peer pressure" factor works in a twin mom's favor in this instance. =)
I now have an almost 3 year old daughter that, until very recently, have also not been ready/willing to train. I think we'll work on it in August. Summer is easier.
However, if you are not feeling ready, I wouldn't rush it. My daughter has been showing "signs" for a l-o-n-g time, but I simply wasn't game. She already goes in the potty anytime she's bare-butted, which is a lot with her. So when I buckle down and decide to go for it, it should go smoothly. At least I hope.
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