won't lay down for nap

[AE+Mama]

We have just transitioned my 2 1/2 year old to a big girl bed, sharing a room with her 5 year old sister. Baby # 3 is due in a month. DD2 does great at bedtime, but naptime is a huge battle during the week. I think she is over-tired from preschool (I work half-days), and I've tried everything I can think of to get her calmly to bed -- reading books, singing lullabies, rocking her (which she fights), laying down next to her (she sits up and screams), cuddling her, leaving her in the room (she climbs out of bed and comes out) . . . nothing helps until she has screamed her tantrum out and finally lets me cuddle her to sleep. Today it took an hour, which means I don't get a nap again since I only make my 5 year old DD1 have "rest" time for an hour. I didn't get a nap all of last week and am greatly feeling the effects

On the weekend, she does okay at naptime, so I think it's linked to being overtired, but what do I do about it. I'm overwhelmed and exhausted at this point and don't know what to do

[NewMoonMum]

how consistent is she with weekend naps? Is it every nap, both weekend days?

I'm afraid if it's really due to being overtired and needing that nap, I cannot help much. My 2.5 DS rarely naps anymore-maybe once a week. Before I figured out for sure he was dropping his nap, he just spent the better part of 2 weeks not falling asleep during naptime, even when I could get him to keep laying down.
He is very good about having quiet time, though, so I did not need to stress about it, since he will just stay put until I tell him quiet time is over-and I am guessing that is not the case for you. So he no longer naps, but still gets at least 45 minutes of quiet playtime each day.

I hope you figure things out!

[AE+Mama]

She consistently goes to sleep easily and takes two hour naps on the weekends. During the week, once she wears herself out from tantruming about nap time, she sleeps at least 1 1/2 hours. I usually end up waking her up so she'll go to bed at a decent hour.

This problem with nap has just started in the past 2 weeks since she has been in her big girl bed. When she was in her crib, I would rock and sing with her, lay her down, and tell her "night-night, sleepy time," leave the room and she would lay down and fall asleep on her own. I'm tempted to move her back to the crib, but at 9 months pregnant, I can't lift her in and out of it very easily anymore.

[marispel]

Do you have rails on the big girl bed? If not, that *may* help.

Have you tried letting her nap in the crib again to see if that is really the issue or is she over-tired? Is there any way you start naptime earlier or let her nap at daycare and pick her up after the nap?

[AE+Mama]

I wish I could pick her up earlier from preschool so she could get to nap sooner, but I can't. We do have railings on her bed, but it doesn't seem to help. We have already taken the crib apart and put it in storage since the new baby will sleep in with us for a while at first.

Today actually went a lot better. She really wanted her big sister to sleep in with her. They share a bedroom, but we've had my 5 year old have her rest time in our bed because she can't really rest with her 2 year old sister screaming. I told 2 yo DD that her big sister could only be in there if she was going to lay down like a big girl with no crying, climbing out of bed, playing, talking, etc. It seemed to work for today and both of them actually slept (me, too! I finally got a nap!). Hopefully that works out for the rest of the week.