I had two plans for my time off from work over the holidays:
1. Take the sides off the boys’ cribs
2. Begin potty training
So, after Christmas we took on the first step in the cribs taking the fronts off them to create a toddler bed. The boys “helped” my husband in the process and were THRILLED that they could now jump into their cribs by themselves. They took turns running from across the room and catapulting themselves onto their bed.
I worried about this move because for my boys, because they are twins the only place in the house that is truly “their own” is their crib. Since they needed to be lifted into them it was safe to assume that they were the only one to use it (except for the time the babysitter put them in the wrong cribs).
Fearing this would disrupt the sleep schedule we had worked SO hard to create. I consulted with Alanna at Good Night Sleep Site for her advice. After some words of encouragement I was ready to take on the night.
While there was crying and fussing the first night the boys settled with some reassurance and slept through the night without any problem. To my shock and amazement the boys actually called to us when they woke up and waited for us to come and tell them it was okay to get out of bed. My fear of the boys running wild through the house in the night was not realized. And they slept! Success! The past week has been equally as good. The boys love their new beds and insist on showing anyone who comes to visit. They still wait to get out of their beds in the morning. Our transition could not have gone any smoother.
Potty training = epic failure
We have tried everything we can thinking of. Smarties, songs, books, videos on our phones, any sort of reward we can think of. Nothing has happened on the potty. They have sat on it (hence the rewards) but truly could not care to attempt to go to the bathroom on it. I am feeling utterly at a loss. I feel they are ready (they are showing lots of signs) but it still is not happening. I know I need to be patient but part of me feels that maybe a move to underwear for a few days would get the process started (at least they’d be more aware when they are going to the bathroom). I go back to work soon and while their preschool takes them to the bathroom, they don’t have a solid potty training process in place.
How did you potty train your kids? What was the process?
Any suggestions/advice?
potty training has been the hardest part of parenting for me! it’s stressful and frustrating. some kids just pick up on it right away and get it, but for my kids it’s always been hard. I wish you luck with it! I’m sure once one of your boys starts the other will soon follow!
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I hope so too Dara! I don’t think I imagine it would be this difficult!
Kerrie @ Family Food and Travel recently posted..Featured by More than Mommies
Potty training has been the hardest thing for me too! Due to several big life changes, we started pretty late with our boy. It took him a long time to get the hang of it, and it required a lot of consistency from me to help him. If you think your boys are ready I would definitely suggest getting them into underwear during the day as much as possible. And don’t skip ahead to peeing standing up (what we did) . :) Hope that helps.
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I was also worried about Kale wandering around the house in the middle of the night when we moved him to his own bed, but he was the same as the twins – would wait and call for me when he wanted to get out. I was totally surprised. I’m glad the transition was an easy one for you!
As for potty training, we followed the three day potty training method. I shared some other tips here: http://harvestingkale.blogspot.ca/2012/03/toilet-training-under-2.html There might be something in there that helps – but I think every kid is different. It’ll happen when they’re ready :)
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Randalin – thank you for the tips and the post. Super helpful!!!
Kerrie @ Family Food and Travel recently posted..Featured by More than Mommies
I can’t say I know what you’re going through as we are not there yet. However, I look forward to reading this process from you and hear what worked in the end.
I might need to contact the woman you mentioned about sleep habits! My daughter is 15 months old and she is HORRIBLE at sleeping at night. Naps, she’s perfect. At night, she wakes up every 2-3 hours and will not fall back asleep unless I hold her or nurse. This is partly my fault…and now I don’t know what to do to fix it! I do NOT want to venture into the cry-it-out thing. Even if she only woke up once a night, I’d be happy.
That potty! I love it. As I haven’t gone through this stage yet, I don’t have any advice, but my sister-in-law always says to just keep the pressure off and they will do it in their own time. No forcing. But I’m sure you’ve heard that already! Good luck :)
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Potty training is TERRIBLE. No two ways about it. How old are the boys again? Sometimes you just have to wait a few months until they are ready. Signs of readiness include staying dry for a few hours at a time, showing interest, and being aware when they need to go. I used cute underwear with cartoons on them, a sticker chart for one child, a prize for the other, and they got Smarties when they used it.
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I’m so happy the new beds were a success!
So sorry the potty training wasn’t….YET. I wish I had tips to share, but because my daughter is younger than your boys I just plan on learning from you :)
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So glad to hear that the bed transition went well. Although I guess taking down one side is easier than transferring to an actual big bed. ;)
As for potty training, I’ve heard that they will do it when they’re ready. DD was ready just around her 3rd birthday. We were using cereal, stickers, balloons — literally everything to encourage her but then she just said one day “I’m ready to go potty now” and didn’t even care what we were offering her. Go figure! And within 6 months she was fully potty trained. It helped though that the majority of her friends at school were also going through the same thing so they’d all get excited during their “washroom break”.
Good luck! It will happen eventually so don’t stress out too much about it.
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We’re yet to experience the joys of potty training so I don’t have any tips unfortunately :( I have heard that boys can be quite difficult though, so I’m not looking forward to it myself! I know a couple of my nephews didn’t train until a bit later (4ish).
Happy to be following along on bloglovin now (from the I love my post hop) :)
Luana recently posted..2/52
I would not even know where to start with potty training – not having kids of my own although I work with children and their families – I know most of my friends let their children just not wear any nappy or anything in the house for a few days then just keep the potty out.
Well done on getting them to stay in their own beds though :)
Jenni x
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We were lucky with potty training, 3 days
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Thisdayilove
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Hi Kerrie! Stopping by to say hi, and I just added you on G+ .
I also invite you to stop by and link up with my NO RULES Weekend Blog Party :)
Paula
lifeasweknowitbypaula.blogspot.com
Congrats on the bed transition!
We have four kids, three trained SO SO SO easily, and the last one did not. Not even close to easy. I just kept encouraging him and making sure everything was in place for him, and let him go on his own time. My much younger nephew was trained a lot faster, and that’s ok. :)