2 Year Old Sleep Issues - Virginia Beach,VA

Ugh! Always hated the 5:00 "conk-out" -- a recipe for destroying bedtime.
If she won't nap...put her in her room/crib with a movie or a story CD and she can have an hour of "quiet time". Just do the nap routine then institute "quiet time" -- it saved my sanity.
She might actually fall asleep, and if she doesn't, at least you'll know she's had a rest and can make it to normal bedtime. (Or move bedtime earlier by 30 mins to compensate for the no sleep days). Good luck.

Naps at 2 are tough and we have many nap/bed time battles. I agree with Bthree that I do well with giving my son 'warnings' that nap/bed time is approaching. I will tell him it is after this tv show is over or after we finish reading these 2 books. Then I give him another warning before we read the last book and even again midway through the last bedtime book. If your daughter doesn't want to nap Denise's suggestion of 'quiet time' sounds like a good plan. I am sorry to say it but you may have a child who gives up naps at an early age.

From a mom with kids who gave up napping early, you may find that your kid just wants sleep at night now. My kiddos (ages 2 and 4) get 12 hours of sleep, but they do it from 7:30PM to 7:30AM. If one of them accidentally takes a nap in the car (a rare occurrence), then that one has a really hard time getting to sleep at night. Neither one of them typically displays a grouchy or sleepy behavior in the afternoon or before bedtime (I have seen this behavior in other children and don't know why my kids don't display it!). They only sometimes seem "worn out" after a lot of outdoor activity and hardly ever act "sleepy," although my 2-year-old sometimes does seem sleepy just at bedtime. Sometimes I wish I could get a long period of rest for myself at the middle of the day that other moms get, but actually my girls entertain each other well and have restful periods where they look at books or play quietly and allow me to get some computer time or other down time. Every family and every kid is different! When I finally gave up on forcing the nap, my life became so much less of a struggle. I felt pressure from others to make napping work, but it just didn't for us. My kids are generally cheerful, bright, active, social, and healthy. My stress level is much better now that I listen to their cues rather than fuzzy this-should-work-for-everyone recommendations from pediatricians!

Talk about what you're going to do in the morning-here's the expectation: we're going to have breakfast, play, do chores, have lunch and then take a nap. Then when you get up, we're going to play, finish the chores, make dinner, eat, take a bath, read and go to sleep. I know this is difficult-but it doesn't last and someday when she is a teenager-you won't be able to get her out of bed-and you will never never sleep whenyour daughter is out of the house. God bless.

How many naps is she taking during the day? My son is 23 months and when he was trying to "drop" his morning nap a few months ago, his schedule went haywire. He'd never had any trouble unless he was sick and has slept through the night since 7 weeks.
I finally said "ok" and now he takes 1 nap at about 12:30-1 pm. Sometimes that nap is only an hour and half and sometimes it's 3 hours.
We have a nice routine for bedtime, which helps. I've also started saying to him "In ____ minutes, you're going to go take a nap/go get ready for bed." Sometimes I say "When Mickey Mouse (or whatever show I have on DVR) goes off, you're going to go take a nap." I've really found that helps when he seems like he might fight me a little.
It will get better. Now he comes to me and says "night-night" and "I sheepy(sleepy)" and he will go to his room and try to crawl up the crib side and get in be by himself!