Potty Training Marathon

The girls have been more than ready for this step, but I have been putting it off.  It was just plain laziness on my part.  After both of them had stayed dry and asked to go potty while we were out shopping, I knew it was time.  I had heard about the 3 day potty training method from some of my MOM buddies.  It is seriously not for the faint of heart.  It is an intense 3 day, balls-to-the-wall, take no prisoners process that after 3 days will leave your child wearing underwear 24/7.  And yes, that means at night and nap time, God help us all. 

So we checked our calendars and mapped out this weekend as the time.  We stocked up on Dora panties, M&Ms, stickers, big kid wipes, salty snacks, and lots of juice.  We have stacks of towels ready for accidents, because there will be accidents, oh the accidents. We put away our computers, iPhones, and every other distraction and focused 100% on them. 

Before we even got started this morning, in was apparent that Zachary was not doing well.  How do parents will 5 or 6 kids do this, I'll never know.  It is tough to be what each of my kids need.  The girls needed 100% of my focus, but here was Zachary needing me, too.  He was short with us and the girls and ended up in his room.  He was pretty upset about something, but couldn't put into words what he was feeling.  I am sure the  thought of the girls getting all the attention, prizes, candy, and all that jazz was a part of it.  We had originally planned for him to be away this weekend but that didn't pan out.  I put in an emergency call to my mom and my brother and between them, he is getting taken care of.  It was such a load off my mind to know that he is playing and distracted at their house.

Here is the day's rundown:
Morning
Abby - 2 accidents and 3 times when we "caught" her and rushed to the potty in time for her to make it.
Olivia - 1 accident and 2 times when we "caught" her

Nap Time

I was seriously dreading this because my girls catch on pretty quick that asking to go potty = getting out of bed.  I knew they would totally take advantage off this...and they did, they Soooooo did.  I suggested we put off trying to keep them dry at nap time and bed time, but that would be "deviating from the plan" so...
Abby - 1 accident in bed - several times running to the potty with no results
Olivia - 4 (!) accidents in bed - a few getting out to run to the potty with no results.
The problem with Olivia was she would relax enough to go to sleep and then have an accident.  That would wind her up and then she would have to settle back down, rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat.

I just about gave in at this point.  I was almost in tears and have not been this stressed about them since they were babies.  After over an hour, they finally fell asleep and I napped with them.  We had a great success here though because both woke up dry and made it to the potty in time.  Yay! 

Afternoon/Evening
Abby - 2 accidents, one of which she got really upset about and 4 times when we caught her in time to run to the potty
Olivia - 0 accidents and 3 times when we caught her

Bed Time
Oh Groan!  Once again, this was a nightmare.  We started bed time a little later since they didn't wake up until 4:45 or so.  It took them 2 hours to finally go to sleep.  2.freaking.long.ass.hours with 70 bajillion requests to get out of bed to go potty with zero results.  Plus, when one would say they needed to go, the other would jump right in with the same request.  Patience was wearing thin, to say the least.   
Abby - 0 accidents and 2 times actually doing something
Olivia - 2 accidents and 2 times actually doing something - one of these accidents was us saying "No, you just went potty."  Yeah, so she had an accident.  Ugh! 

For the first day with zero diapers or pull-ups, I actually think they did pretty well with it.  Tomorrow, I am hoping they start telling us or at least saying they need to go.  The only time they actually asked to go or said they needed to go was in bed.  The other times we were watching them so closely that we would recognize their little cues and rush them to the potty. 

I will update tomorrow on how it goes. 

And because it has been sooo long since I updated with pictures...