tell me your secrets getting 3 yr old to nap with a babe in the house

[dancemama23]

He's outright refusing, with crying and screaming, but clearly needs a nap some days. The only thing that works is the car.
Help! I'm concerned he's not getting the sleep he needs, soo cranky come late afternoon...

[Teddy'sMom]

My only suggestion is to be consistent. Sometimes my oldest doesn't want to nap, but I just tell him he can lay in bed and look through some books. He has a clock that he can understand and I point to the time that I will come to check on him (about 30 minutes away). 90% of the time when i come to check on him he is asleep. He really doesn't fight me on this so it isn't too hard to enforce. There have been times when he tries getting out of bed repeatedly, but I just keep bringing him back to bed and tell him that we all need a break and rest. he doesn't have to sleep but he does need to rest in his bed. Don't know if this helps. Also, I will say that I don't believe in letting a baby cry, however, allowing a toddler who is mad about a situation but totally understands what is going on to cry or fuss for a bit is a different story, IMO. You know your child best, you know what kind of crying he is doing.

[kdescalzi]

I wanted to tell you that unfortunately once dd came along, ds has stopped napping. He is also 3yrs old and still needs to nap...we have daily meltdowns and our afternoons can be terrible. I cannot leave dd alone long enough to lay with ds until he is asleep, hence the no more sleeping. I tried everything and finally gave up. It has been awhile now and ds has adapted pretty well. He will only fall asleep in the car and on those days it is pure bliss!!

[sweetcheeks]

When my youngest was born, my then 3YO DD was not napping daily at that point. But, for the sake of my sanity, she was required to have quiet time every afternoon for an hour or so. I would put her in her bed w/those Crayola Color Wonder markers and color wonder color book and she could color or pick out some books from the bookcase to look at. About once/week, she would actually fall asleep and have a good 3 hour nap.

[tnh2007]

nak
You also might consider some white noise. We run a fan in ds room. b/w that and being consistent, my ds is still nappiing well despite our 5 wk old.

[JudiAU]

Some things that worked for us. Trying nap when baby is asleep. Let's me give more singing /stories/handholding. Delaying baby's nap well I "run him hard" at the park to qoute dh which helps. Morning activity with a long drive to get him down and then carry all 40 pds into house. Baby had daily visit to exersaucer while I help him go go sleep. Routine. A skipped nap tends to escalate and every day it gets harder/horrible so we reschedu,e the whole next day whe. It happens.

[apple o' my eye]

I am partially bumping this cuz I want to hear people's ideas
We aren't there yet, but a friend lets her infant play on the floor while staying with the older one and helping her go to sleep. Don't know if that would work with your nap routine? or kiddos temperaments?

[earthworm]

I put my youngest to sleep first and then focus on helping my oldest get to sleep. We read a lot and cuddle. Sometimes it doesn't work and he just rests instead--lies there, looks at books, and yeah maybe watches a movie if it is that kind of day, haha.
If the weather is all right and you can get out, going outside a bit before nap time almost always helps us. In fact we are dealing with a few days of no nap because it is way too hot to go out lately. Or even if you had some free indoor play places nearby. Or I'm sure you could try just jumping and running around a lot in your house, haha. Just something a little different--more active--than his usual activities. Sometimes even activities that aren't super physical but are just more involved than how he usually plays work for us--like a big (relatively; don't overwhelm yourself, haha) art project or science experiment. And then some kind of calmer activity like reading, I guess. I feel like I am just rambling because my 3 year old hasn't been napping and I am hoping to give myself an idea too, heh.
We don't have a strict routine or anything but our days are usually similar and I think that helps. Mostly because my son has a hard time napping when his dad is home (always results in a change of schedule it seems).
And the more upset I get about the lack of napping, the less napping he seems to do. Not saying you freak out as much as I do, hahaha, but I'm just putting that out there. I would just let the nap go if he is resisting that much; it's just not worth it.
I hope you find something that works for your family! I know it can be tough!