Potty Training Twins: The First 4 Days (Days 1-4)
Three day potty training sounded like a dream...and like most things in life, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 14 Days is a more realistic expectation...and it was totally worth it! We were naked for 4 days, in just undies for 3 days, and ventured out for a quick walk on day 6, took them out of the house on day 8...and actually enjoyed a trip out of the house to a restaurant on Day 15.
I opted to split my potty training content up - because it was kind of a rollercoaster - but I blogged it every day to make sure I was able to capture my true feelings in the moment.
I will give you a break down on the first few days below...but know I've got content to cover the prep, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

DAY 1: No pants
By 9am I felt defeated by 7pm I felt like a champion. Today was the day, we marked on the calendar, it came and we are ready to go. I stocked up on Clorox wipes, took a quick shower, grabbed a coffee, and we were ready to go. We had read the books. We had the pep talk. Today was the day!
We had been talking about this with our twins for a few weeks - really gearing up the 3-5 days prior - including a trip to Target for them to select undies for them to wear (AFTER they got the swing of things).
Jayna and Kinsley are 26 months old, were showing signs of being ready to potty train for about one month (thanks to all the Instagram DM's alerting me to this), and my husband and I committed to two days phone-free, with all eyes on...and I took off Monday for extra coverage to get our nanny up to speed. We planned to do 2-3 days naked, transition to underwear, and then to pants. We also were (and did) diaper them for naps and overnight....we will cross that bridge later.
The girls were awake right on queue...here we go:
All the books said to remove the diapers after breakfast, but we decided we’re just going to go in swinging. It was go time! We woke both the girls up clean their diapers and then promptly removed them so they were just in their shirt. Nothing on below the waist.
We were immediately met with resistance. They wanted their pants. They even told me which color pants they wanted, but we remain focused. Today we are going to go on the potty and it was easier to know when you need to go if you aren't wearing any pants.
We had three toddler toilets in the house:
One upstairs adapter for the adult toilet
One downstairs adapter for the adult toilet
One portable potty, set up downstairs (because, despite all my research, I neglected to look into anything for twins and the only thing i saw was you MUST have two potties on the main floor - well, portable potty it is then)
They had seen the adapter on the adult potty but Jayna quickly wanted to try it out. She literally did squats over the toilet for three minutes. Sit down. Stand up. Sit down. Stand up....and of course nothing into the toilet.
We fumble through teeth brushing and headed downstairs for breakfast.
In the moments leading up to breakfast, I made a discovery that I did not read anywhere....and it was a game changer!
Tip 1: Feed your child standing up. My husband I agreed we would never be able to catch them mid-pee if they were seated in their high chairs, so they ate at the island, standing in their learning towers.
Over breakfast, we explained to them that they were now big girls and they needed to tell us when they needed to go potty. For every successful pee, they got 1 melt, and 2 melts for every poop (we are going to come back to that award around Day 10). I even let them select the melt flavor they wanted and they insisted on holding the unopened bag.
One hour in and there was absolutely nothing from either girl. We hadn’t eaten breakfast ourselves (rookie mistake - tip 2: eat before your kids wake up and after they go to sleep) but the girls were pretty happy and ate their yogurt and waffles with their bear butt.
The first accident happened around 9 AM. It was Kinsley, in the bathroom, literally the moment I turned my head and grab my phone. Shame on me, I wanted to capture the moment, and instead I totally missed it. #momfail
We were pumping them with what ever fluids they would drink - water, milk, juice, seltzer.
By 10 AM I felt like hope was lost, we had had no actual pee in the potty, and at least four accidents between the two of them. But then something changed.
One twin peed on the toilet and the first melt was delivered. Enter the sibling rivalry, the other sister wanted what she didn’t have. And it became a huge issue. There was suddenly a sense of urgency for the sister to earn a melt....which happened less than 30 minutes later.
By 1pm I was exhausted. I actually don't know if I had been that tired since our first nights home with them after they were born. We diapered them for nap - and they were OUT! Slept for 3+ hours like rocks until it was time to hit the evening routine.
My husband and I did a quick clean through the house, workout (why?!) and sipped some wine during naptime.
We spent the evening doing naked art - which quickly became a fan favorite - and something I would highly recommend!
We were met with a few more in-action runs to the bathroom - primarily during dinner (which quickly became a trend...and makes me extra grateful that we fed them standing up so we could grab them and run!)
Our evening routine typically includes a bit of TV when I am cooking dinner or right after while we do the dishes. There was NO WAY I was letting them sit naked on my new leather couches or their bean bags, but we sat them in their art table seats and they were happy.
Up for bath time, diaper, books, and bed.
We really kept our routine as close to normal as possible (with the exception of no park or outdoor play time), but I think the consistency helped.
HOORAY! We survived! We celebrated with sushi on the couch before going to sleep at 8:30pm.
Day 2: No pants
We woke up smarter today - because we did wake up earlier just to make sure we ate before the twins woke up. And they were exhausted!! They slept for 13 hours!
Same deal with breakfast (standing up), but this time we opted to include smoothies to help with fluid in-take (and they are a crowd pleaser).
By 10:30 AM we still had nothing from either girl. My brain went from What I learned is they were able to hold their bladder for a significant period of time, soon there after we had our first P with Kinsley and Jayna followed suit.
The weather was nice so we let the girls play outside and even with some water, which is what caused the second pee. We had a breakthrough before lunch where Jayna told us she needed to pee, she did and then she came back in and said she needed to pee again which ultimately was a poop.
DAY 2 and we had poop on the toilet from one.
A phone call to Gramma with a successful poop and round of applause via Facetime made her face illuminate, and Kinsle quickly wanted to prove to Gramma that she could do it too. She kept repeating "poop, melts, call Gramma."
By naptime, Jayna didn’t want a diaper to be put on her, but we told her we needed to to make sure she could be dry and comfortable to sleep, they both woke up from nap almost completely dry.
Pants are off and we were back in it.
Jayna proceeded to tell us every time she needed to bathroom there on out. It was often prompted with the word no, “no pee, no poop" but we quickly learned that the "no" in front of the action was her being afraid. "No pee" meant grab her and run to the toilet.
While Jayna was super speedy with her statement of needing to use the bathroom and using it, her sister seem to be much slower. (PS - this is totally the opposite of what everyone thought.) Although Kinsley would tell us she needed to go to the bathroom, I would sit her on the toilet and nothing came out, but I learned that I wasn’t giving her long enough.
We had an accident at dinner time where she had told us she needed to pee. We sat her down she didn’t pee and then soon there after she did. Just before bed the same thing happen, she told us she needed to pee we sat her on the toilet nothing came out it seemed like she was playing so we popped her off and took her upstairs only to hear her exclaimed "Pee!"as it was shooting out of her as she was climbing on her step stool to try to get to the toilet.
Day 2: Still feeling like heroes, exhausted heroes, but not as bad as Day 1. We had poop on the toilet from one and they didn't want to wear their diapers for naps. We were pros!
Day 3: No pants
God bless three-day weekends. While my husband went back to work, I had one more day to get the girls "on track" and get our nanny up to speed before going into the office the following day.
I was gone in the morning for about 75 minutes, and when I returned I missed poop explosion from Kinsley....of course I was distraught - HOW could that have been missed? Did she make it to the toilet at the end? None of which brought the answers I wanted to hear...
But an interesting bond between Jayna and Kinsley emerged....neither of them would talk about it or own up. If you asked Jayna if her sister pooped, she would tell you "yes" and if you asked where, she said "the toilet." And poor Kinsley wouldn't answer.
Sadly, it happened two more times that afternoon, but we also discovered Kinsley was sick. She threw up over night and spiked a bit of a fever later in the day...so all seems to be forgiven.
We made it through the entire day with no accidents (except for the 3 that we are chalking off to sickness).
Day 4: No pants
Despite Jayna being ready to move on, and Kinsley not far behind, we decided that one extra day pant-free would be a good thing for all parties (including our nanny to help her learn their behaviors)....plus, I had a bunch of important meetings that I needed to be in the office for.
I checked-in mid-day and was excited to learn that there had been NO accidents... and that apparently both girls are camels (only peeing 2 times and 1 time each from 8am-1pm). Post-nap we even got poop from Kinsley!
Now - when I say no accidents, I want to be super clear, that was because the adults in the house were on it. If either girl made mention of the bathroom, we were sprinting to the bathroom with them in hand....again, so much easier since they were in their learning towers.
We had survived the first few days and were ready for underwear!
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