Nap strategies - need ideas

[mckittre]

My 2 year old will not nap, and he needs to.

He needs the sleep.  We can't find any way to get him to sleep more than 10 hours or so at night.  We try putting him down earlier, encouraging him to go back to sleep after waking, etc...  No dice.  10 hours at night would be fine if he would nap, but he won't.  We try doing the same thing as at night (a routine, then cuddling with dad).  I try nursing.  Nothing works. 

The only things that have any chance at working aren't at all practical.  Hiking while wearing him often works, but it takes at least half an hour or so of hiking to get him to sleep usually, and he'll usually wake right up if I walk back in the door.  I like to hike, but snowshoeing for 2-3 hours every day with a toddler on my back and one-month-old on my front is really not a practical solution.  Sometimes he'll fall asleep in a car, but we don't have a car, and wouldn't want to do that either.

Does anyone have any suggestions of routines and strategies to get a toddler to nap?  (or to sleep longer at night).  He's quite verbal, and will understand what we tell him, but enforcing a quiet time doesn't seem to work either (he just plays in bed and never lies down).

[lifeguard]

I wish I knew what to suggest - we have a very similar problem here. Ds is only sleeping about 10 hours at night & is MISERABLE from 2 until bedtime. That's a loooooong time to deal with a cranky 2 year old for a pregnant mama. Ds will happily nap though - except then he won't go to sleep at a reasonable time so I always feel caught as to what is better.

For getting ds to lie quietly when he wants to play I simply tell him I will only stay with him as long as he is lying still ('cause no way he will fall asleep flipping around) & that works pretty well.