potty training hell

I have to PT the girls for pre-school which starts in 5 weeks. They will be 3 on Friday.

They seem to be interested in wearing big girl panties and I have just done the boot camp type method where we went straight to big girl panties. They have been in them 4 days ..

Day #1 ... M piddled on the floor once and on the potty three times and H piddled on the floor twice and in the potty 0 times

Day #2 ... M piddled potty once and 3 times on the floor ... H on the floor only ... 4 times and pooped in her panties once

Day #3 ... M piddled potty 3 times and none on the floor ... H piddled once on the floor and none in the potty

Day #4 ... M piddled potty once and once on the floor (so far) and H piddled twice on the floor


So I am going crazy ... they are getting mad that I want them to sit on the potty ... Hannah flat out refused the first two days and at least now will sit on it. I put them in diapers for nap and night and that is when they do the most pee'ing and poo'ing. So I feel like I know they can hold it. The first day Hannah went from 9AM to 2PM (when I put her in a diaper for nap) without going at all! How can I teach her how to let it loose? I pressed on her little bladder and said "is that uncomfortable?" and she said yes and I said it was b/c of the pee pee in there and that if she could just relax it would come out ... I just don't know how to help her visualize HOW to pee?! How do you teach someone how to pee? Clearly M is more ready than H and I don't know that either is READY but I don't have a choice if I want them to go to this school (that I have already paid the first month and registration for which was $600 not to mention it is a GREAT school.)

Any tips would be so helpful! I was going to write more but they are losing it downstairs so I gotta go put out the fire ... OH, and we do M&Ms (1 for trying at least 5 mins, 1 for pee, 2 for poop) and I have promised a new fun toy (they know which one and want it) to replace the changing table with once they are day trained. We have tons of fun big girl panties ... hmmmm ... I guess that is it ... please let me know if you have any helpful tips ... I am going nutty and on top of it all I have a 5 month old who also needs me seemingly every waking minute. Oh, and the twins (especially M) will sit on the potty sometimes when I ask ... and they will even sit on it for HALF an hour while we read books, paint nails, eat snacks (gross, I know) or whatever I can think of to keep them there ... TV ... whatever ... but they just won't let the pee loose!!!

 

hrmm so we were kinda in your shoes. I had a girl who held it ALL day and we also have a 7 month old at home

Since you are already doing fun underwear, and giving m&ms....the other things that worked for us were:

1. a sticker chart, they could pick the sticker and I placed it right behind their potty chairs so they could compare who had more (my twins are competitive)
2. having the potty out, VERY easy to get to- even if that was the living room (it was short lived)
3. NO DIAPERS AT ALL. NONE for naps, none for Bedtime. When I told them they were "big kids" and that only babies (like their little sister) wore diapers I wanted them to know I meant it. I also explained all the "big kid things" they can do that their baby sister can not do.
4. Do they have a friend who is potty trained that they can watch? We watched our friend go potty (and did the whole song and dance thing when she went) so the kids could see how cool their friend was.
5. Telling them I wanted to see what color their pee would be. What color do you think pee is? Let the pee pee come out so we can see what color it is today LOL
6. repeating the phrase " pee goes in the potty" a billion times.

Best of luck!!!

 

Wow, talk about pressure...5 weeks sure isn't long, especially if they aren't ready. Don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but my personal opinion is that they don't sound ready, Hannah, especially. When I PT'd my girls the first try, they also held all day. I tried and tried everything I could think of and no go for them. I had to put the potties aside and then tried again in another month or so which at that point Sarah went like a champ, but Allison still no go. I then focused on Sarah, got her completely trained day and night (except for poooping) and then in another month or so, worked on Allison...she wasn't ready until four months after my first attempt. If they aren't ready, they aren't going..IMO. And to try to force them to go when they aren't ready just frustrates everyone. I know you have paid out this money and are really anxious to get them going, but my advice is to put it away for a couple of weeks and try again, at least with Hannah. Maybe focus on M for a while, then maybe if she's successful and Hannah see's M getting rewarded she will follow.

Good suggestions from pp...however, if using all the advice and you still can't get them to go, they just may not be ready.

 

While I haven't tried PT twins yet - I tell you how we go about our PT.

1) I set a timer to go off every 30 minutes - my old daycare said this is how they PT. I used this so I didn't have to remind them - I would tell them that the Potty Timer wants you to go potty. Anytime I would tell my LO's I wanted them to go potty they didn't want to. For some reason they were ok with the timer, just a cheap one that can move room to room.

2) I had a potty seat on the toilet seat and I had a potty chair in the family room.

3) Keep clothes to a minimum so they don't have to worry about taking clothes off.

4)Used underwear at all times. I did use a 3x3 waterproof pad for naps and bedtime, that way I didn't have to wash all the bedding, just the mat

5) I did toys on my first child, NEVER again will I do that - that cost me a fortune and LO would only pee/poop when the prize was worth it, uggh. I also did M&M's or their favorite small candy, and that was fine never a big issue and gave them an instant praise!

6) Anytime I went to the bathroom I bring the child in with me. I always asked to listen and hear the pee/poop come out. You can make a game out of how loud the pee is and if they hear anything.

Good Luck!

 

We just did the 3 day method about 3 weeks ago and I will tell you it did take a little longer than 3 days especially for one DD. I made a really big deal out of saying that diapers were for babies and they were not babies anymore. I had them help me pack up all the diapers and wipes and I told them we were going to give them to their 18 month old cousin. We are still having accidents but they definitely get it. I agree with PP, NO DIAPERS, even at bedtime. I was very anxious about this but one DD did really well and the other DD started staying dry through the night after about 4-5 days. Having a piddle pad underneath them for awhile is a good idea, it will save you from constantly having to wash bedding. And also be very consistent, constantly repeating things like "pee and poop go in the potty" and when you ask them if their underwear are dry and clean make a huge deal about it if they are. One DD is especially stubborn, I knew she understood, but it became a power struggle. She would always poop in her underwear during the day but go in the potty before bed. I had to up the rewards by buying little toys from the dollar section at Target. Also I did back off a little on her as most books will suggest when a power struggle arises. I refused to put her back in diapers but instead of constantly bugging her about going to the potty I would just rush her there when ever she started having an accident. I tried not to make a big deal about it, just tell her that pooping and peeing in her underwear was yucky and it goes in the toilet.

Also, don't let them sit on the potty for a long time and do things, sometimes I had to leave them alone on the bathroom because I think they would sit there forever with me there for the attention

Don't worry, it will click, I was at my wits end several times and thought for sure it would never happen but it did.

 

Yep forgot to add this one too! listening for it is FUN

This is especially true for me as well and obviously with a little baby you cant be in the bathroom all day.

 

Are you giving them lots and lots of stuff to drink? Popsicles, straight juice (not watered down), even kool-aid if you don't mind all the sugar. The more they drink, the more they will have to pee and the more chances they have to get it in the potty. You could also try letting them be naked. Maybe they are afraid to get the new panties wet, but they are a little afraid to use the potty too. If they are naked, they will probably just pee on the floor, but then you can rush them to the potty while they're going and let them finish it on the potty.

I'm also not a fan of letting them hang out more than a few minutes on the potty. They need to learn to go to the potty when they need to pee, not just to sit on the potty long enough that eventually they pee.

 

I did potty boot camp for my twin dd because she just didn't care. I put the little potty in the same room with us and put her only in panties and a shirt. Tons of drinks and dry snacks all day. The first 2 days I was cleaning up big puddles. We had treats for actually getting some pee into the potty at first. Then once she caught on that the pee should go into the potty we started doing treats only if the pee went in the potty AND the panties were dry. I never made her sit on the potty unless she was already starting to pee somewhere else. My middle ds would hold it all day long and pee/poop only in the nap/bedtime diaper. I figured as long as he kept his undies clean, it counted! It took dd a few weeks to really give in to the whole process but when she realized it was be wet/messy or use the potty, she knew I was serious. She did have occasional accidents (less than once a week) for about 4 months but I just made sure to send extra clothes to school with her and have her wear washable shoes for a while. GL!