Baby 1: Mommy 0 - Durant,OK

Well, you hung in there a lot longer than I would have! LOL
I never wanted to make nap time a battle (not that it wasn't sometimes!) but generally, if it looked like it wasn't happening, I'd just set my sights on an earlier bedtime.
Maybe at 2, it might morph into an every-other-day thing? That's OK too!

Teach her that she needs rest time even if she doesn't sleep. Put on a long classical cd & tell her she doesn't have to 'nap', but she has to stay in bed w/stuffed animals & books till the music stops. She'll feel in control & won't fight it, probably be aseep by song 3.

I give my dd some books, she can either sleep or quietly read. Works good because if she starts being loud I threaten to take the books away, lol.

I work from home too and went through the same thing. When my daughter was 2 she stopped napping. Quiet time in her room was not an option for her either. It lasted about 30 minutes, which was not long enough to get any work done. What did work was to tell her that she had to play on her own until Mommy was off the phone. Then, if she was good girl Mommy would play with her. Over time I was able to increase her on her own time. Now I can be on the phone for a 1 hour meeting and she is fine. THere were also times when I would pop in a DVD for her to watch. It depended on how critical the call was. She also has a few shows she watches in the morning. So I get a lot of work done then. So, by some standards maybe she watches too much TV, but considering we spend hours reading and in imaginitive play, I am not too worried.

It probably took about 6 months for her to get the idea, she is 4 now, and completely gets that Mommy has to work some times. She knows that if she interrupts, she get less Mommy time later.

Good luck! It is a hard balacing act!

My score board never looks like that at bed time. My quiet time is a MUST so my kids have always gone to bed on time. Defeat is NOT an option.

How do I accomplish this? Put your 2-year-old (she is not a baby any more, Momma) in her bed, shut the door, and ignore her. She will go to sleep and she will get the point that Momma means business.

No one keeps score in my house because I always win.

(Ok, not always, my 5-year-old never cleaned her room this weekend, but... you know what I mean)

That is around the age when both of mine started seriously fighting them. It becomes a valiant effort on your part to determine if they are really ready to give them up. You will figure out if this is the case, when, if you skip it, they conk out on you later in the day (and usually just late enough that they have a difficult time going to bed on time also).

One thing that helped me, was to make sure to physically wear them out in the mornings, and then have a relaxed 30 minutes before nap time. Failing that working, try going to the store. Seriously. Mine would pass out in the car every time. LOL
When they get to that in-between stage, where the nap interferes with bedtime because they refuse to sleep until too late in the afternoon, then store trips work beautifully. Because they end up, usually, with nothing more than a cat-nap... 20 minutes or so. Just enough to get them past the hump in the afternoon, and not too much that it interferes with bedtime.
Good luck. Don't be afraid to experiment with your schedule a little.

Totally had to look this up for you because we bought this for our son’s door to keep our middle child from going into his room and waking him up @ 0dark30 because she has a hard time sleeping vs he enjoys his sleep. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3812906

With sleep training, we put ours down and walk out of the room.

If you haven't done that - I've heard some moms rock every nap/bedtime.

Maybe your toddler doesn't need a nap everyday. My son naps every other day and when he does nap it is a four hour long nap. If he is being fussy but not tired enough for a nap he does quiet time. Which means he lays in his bed. If he falls asleep fine. if he doesn't that's fine too. I usually last an hour before telling him he can get up. If he is not asleep in an hour he will not sleep. We have some problem with him staying in bed, but he likes to have the door open. So I tell him as long as he stays in bed the door can stay open. If he keeps getting up the door gets closed.

Make sure her room is safe and secure for her to be in then put her in, close the door and put up a baby gate or two. Keep her in her room for an hour while you cool down else where. She'll either sleep or play for an hour. I was able to nap while my daughter was in her room. My bedroom is close to hers and I've always heard "mommy" through closed doors and alseep.

My daughter is 5 now and get's movie time in her room. She picks a movie and I lay down, she comes in only when the movie is over, she's only allowed to leave her room to potty. There's gates at the other doors, and one at the hallway to the living room, they rattle when she climbs over them so I hear if she tries being sneaky.

All my kids dropped their naps at two, but we still had quiet time.
I laid down in bed with them, we snuggled and read a few stories, then I got up and left.
You can't force a child to sleep, but you can enforce quiet time. My kids knew they had to stay in bed, the curtains were drawn, and they were only allowed to "read" books and snuggle with their stuffed animals, no busy or loud toys. If they were tired enough they sometimes fell asleep (though rarely!) and I let them get up after about 45 minutes or so.
If you are working from home you may need to start looking for a babysitter, I'm surprised you've been able to work without one for this long!

You need a babysitter.
You work from home.
Toddler hood, is like this.

My son napped even at 4 years old.
It was routine. He also needed it. He knew nap time and would even tell me when he was tired and would start walking off to his room.

If a child will not or cannot nap, they won't.
But toddlers are busy.
And they are not self regulating.

At least with my family key if accepting when they will no longer nap. I have one that napped till he was 8 another that gave them up at a year. Yeah that last one was seriously messed up but I refused to spend an hour every day getting her to nap for 45 minutes. That and when I gave up it wasn't like she was sleepy or appeared to need a nap.

The other two it was somewhere around two years old.

Some kids are not nappers and for them you have to go with quiet time for however long.

It might be time to look into a babysitter so that you don't start resenting your child. She may be starting to outgrow the nap as my daughter did even earlier than yours.

Do you have a friend that could swap babysitting for an hour or two a few days a week? It could be beneficial to both of you.

Also, this day time is SO valuable to her during these early years that you might need to get your things done before she gets up in the morning or after your husband gets home at night.

And anytime it starts to get to you, and motherhood feels overwhelming, try and switch gears to bring some joy into the situation.

When DD gave up naps in her second year, I finally gave up making her take them when 30 minutes of "quiet time" was just a toddler staring at the walls or begging to get up. It's hard when you count on that nap time, but if she consistently doesn't nap anymore (and you've tried things like running her at the playground earlier in the day), then I'd make it quiet time for 30 mins or so and if she's still awake, then just go on with your day.

The flip side for us was that when DD stopped napping every day, she started going to bed at night more easily and earlier. She gets all her sleep then.

I worked from home, but I always had a babysitter to watch my daughter - so maybe that is an option for you?

2 is tough..... so hang in there. But consistency is definitely the key. Once she knows she can get her way.... your goose is cooked!

my two and a half yr old girl no longer sleeps durring nap time but she stays in her bed and its quiet time. were super lucky by telling her to stay in her bed, do not get out! it worked great for several months and the first time she got out just a simple ummmm (in a naughty tone) brought big huge tears and she stayed for another month or so. Now durring nap time she gets all of her toys and puts them in bed with her. she also found her books and has ripped them to pieces even board books ! but she mostly stays in her bed and knows its quiet time.

i also work from home with a four 1/2 and two 1/2 yr old not much gets done durring the day. We found a mdo that is open all day on tuesday and thursday. they were in full time daycare but it proved to be too costly. if you can find one you like i suggest the break for you and the social time for her. Its good for kids to get away and have a break from you too.

Maybe a change of scenery? Can you take her out in the stroller? I used to do this with my son... even when he didn't nap, I wasn't so stressed because I was getting away from the housework and getting some exercise to boot. If he fell asleep, I'd either wheel in the stroller or let him sleep in the backyard (it's gated). and then I'd go start the next thing I needed to do!

She wants YOU to try to make her nap because it's fun to be with mommy and watch you pay attention to her. She fights the nap because this is her way of manipulating you.

So, put her in her room and require her to stay in there and not come out. If she doesn't sleep, then it has to be quiet time. It will be hard for a few days because she will continue to fight it, and you'll have to discipline more because she is tired, but when she figures out that you won't be manipulated anymore, and you are not allowing her to sleep later, she will start taking her nap again because she still needs it.

And, mom, if she really IS ready to drop that nap, you still need to impose quiet time on her. Make her adhere to it, no matter what.

Dawn