I Survived Potty Training Twins

I've had a child in diapers in my house for over 5 1/2 years.  The past two of which I have used cloth diapers exclusively at home (we used disposable for outings).  That's a lot of diaper changes.  I confess that I dreamed of the day I'd no longer be structuring my life around the world of diapers.  And while I'm so glad we chose to make the switch to cloth, which I truly loved, I am not sorry to see the amount of laundry in my week decrease significantly.  Because that's right folks.  The twins are POTTY TRAINED!!  (If you listen carefully, you may hear angels singing in the background.  Or is that only me hearing it?)

I confess I was nervous about potty training twins.  But it turned out that when the time came I had to reframe my thinking a bit.  Because really what happened was I was potty training two children.  My twins are fraternal, and they are very much their own individuals, so they ended up being ready at different times.

Cort showed readiness first.  At age 2, he started going into Pierce's room and putting underwear on over his diaper.  He starting asking to use the potty.  I really thought he was too young, so I delayed a bit.  But at 2 years 3 months I gave in and we potty trained.  He took to number #1 very quickly, but it took another 4 months before we had consistent success with #2 in the potty.  I've heard that is common with boys.

And then I waited patiently for Reid to show readiness.  I didn't see any signs until 2 years 10 months (which is exactly when Pierce showed signs).  Reid started saying he had to go pee, right after he had just peed, which meant he was starting to register the whole event. 

When I potty train, I just switch straight to underwear when they show signs of readiness.  We only do diapers at night.  So during the day, they wear underwear, and I remind them constantly not to pee in their underwear; to only pee in the potty.  Then I set a timer and take them every 20 minutes.  We use a potty seat on the regular toilet rather than one of those tiny fake pottys, simply because I don't want to be cleaning out a potty when they could use the toilet.  Reid took the longest to catch on of all 3 of my boys, but even with Reid he was staying dry by the 3rd day.  It's a method that worked well for us. 

As for me, I'm just a little sad to say goodbye to the diaper days, simply because it seems the last remnant of babyhood.  Flashbacks of the twins as babies in cloth Fuzzibunz diapers with cute striped leggings warm my heart.  But mostly, I'm glad to move beyond this phase, and while I took a moment to reflect, I'm ready to move on without looking back!