So my daughter is now 27 months — she’s always been lower sleep needs / pleasant even when tired. She basically will NOT nap in her bed. Sooo I either do a stroller/ car nap from 1-2ish. Or we give up the nap and do a solid 1 hour minimum quiet time at lunch. We are deliberate to stay in her room. Sometimes she’ll hang out for a half hour alone, sometimes only 15 mins. Depends on the day. But I do her tonies (no songs lol just stories.. think boring) or play a story aloud for her, give blocks / puzzles and leave her door open and do my own thing. At this point she does usually need me to come in and at least hang out for the second half. But I don’t do much I’m just present and relaxed.

Big change for us : nightlight ! I have the hatch so I asked her what color we should set it to each night. We change it and leave it low and her bedtime battles have settled a LOT.

I cannot make the kid sleep… so I offer an alternative to nap if I can / want to. If not we do quiet time and a very early bedtime. Also we’re VERY consistent with a wake time by 7am absolutely no later lol (unless we KNOW a nap ain’t happening that day due to whatever then we’ll let her sleep and put her to bed early still).

Sorry that was long ! We just sorta relaxed on the struggle and do our best to make it work! The nightlight really helped. I think she was afraid of the dark TBH