For us it was the worst during the month before #2 was born - I think they have a sixth toddler-sense that alerts them to the impending arrival/doom of a new sibling! I remember the night I went into labor I had to very carefully and quietly peel the fledgling off me so she would stay asleep while I got up and had contractions in the other room! I was so scared of her waking up because I knew there was no way I could get her back down while I was in labor!

And even still, there's no way she'll sleep if she doesn't want to. Doesn't matter if I read in the room, snuggle on top of her (all 210 lbs of me when I was pregnant!), sing songs until I fall asleep singing . .. it doesn't matter if its 3:30 in the morning or 2 in the afternoon. She parties when she wants to, and she sleeps when she wants to. But we keep trying anyway.

But here's where you might have some hope - once the baby is born, Pait might shift a bit and get a little more independent, especially around falling asleep. It happened for us, and I know of some others that had the same experience. So hold out a little longer and hope for the best this summmer!

Just commiseration. Up until 2 months ago DS (2y 3m) had to be nursed to sleep at nap time. When I stopped nursing he would lay there and cry for a long time until he would just get so tired that he would finally crawl over to me and put his head on my shoulder and go to sleep. So now he goes to sleep within minutes but his head HAS to be on my shoulder to do it. I can get up and leave as soon as he is asleep, and thank goodness he crashes fairly quickly, but there were a few weeks that I knew that my afternoon would be shot while he learned to sleep without nursing. We are now 100% weaned but I think he still needs to feel that comforting presence of my body next to his to fall asleep. I guess I am okay with it 'cause I am not ready to give up nap time yet!

Good luck mama!

Oh, mama, I feel for you. You poor thing. I had a similar situation when I was pregnant with Lily--Ava was 19 months when she was born. I used to lay on the floor until she fell asleep and it was so hard for me as I got bigger and bigger. My girls are now 2 and 3.5yo and this is our routine:
Naptime is 30 mins after lunch
we use potty, wash hands and face and brush teeth. Read two books, put on soft music, give them each two book to read on their own and I walk out. On a perfect day--I can count these on one hand--they fall asleep. But on every other, I usually end up reading in their room until they fall asleep, which as much as it drives me crazy, is the best way to go. I get to read, have some rest myself, and they feel comforted. I've never been one to let them cry it out, so this is our best solution.
I was just reading the other day that it is totally normal for a 2yo to start protesting naps. The article was saying if it is too much a fight, let them skip it and put them to bed earlier. I've done this a few times with Lily and at 6.30 she is toast. This is a tough age and expecting another one is so exhausting. I wish you luck, mama.
You must live, not simply exist.

This sounds exactly like our situation when #1 was 2. We started to say things like "Mama (or papa) has to go to the bathroom, then I'll be right back" and just not go back in. She would usually crash within a couple of minutes. Sometimes we'd go in and out a couple of times. This was just a few months after she needed to be nursed to sleep - we couldn't believe she'd actually go to sleep on her own.

Now she's 3.5 & bedtime still isn't so easy, but it is much, much better - we use the same strategy.

good luck mama - being hugely pregnant with a 2 year old is so, so hard!!!

It takes forever to get dd down these days--we have pretty much the same process. I rented supernanny on dvd and she has a bedtime routine where you sit next to the bed and just keep putting the child back in bed but not making eye contact or talking to them after the first couple of times, and then you gradually increase your distance from the bed over a course of days, but I haven't had the conviction to do that yet. I do find that some chamomile tea before bed helps to mellow her out and we have music that she's somewhat conditioned to sleep to.

my kid is more or less the same. I sympathize. I find it to be a pain in the ass and I'm not pregnant a bit.

My best solution is that I read to myself after I am done with his story (sit in his bed and ignore him for the most part while I read - I love to read) so that helps me stay calm, plus I get to read a lot. BUt it sucks and breaks up our evening. And yeah, after an hour or so he often wakes up and I either take him back to bed and start all over, put him in our bed (he ends up there every night) or hold him while he sleeps if we are watching a dvd or something.

Right now it seems like the "solutions" are worse than the problem.

When ds hit 2.5 he started doing something similar at bedtime. At this point he was taking a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. I started waking him up after he'd napped for an hour. He was still pretty groggy, but it was just enough to ensure that he'd be tired at bedtime.

When he started preschool last fall, he stopped taking naps altogether. Now he will occasionally nap if he's really exhausted or sick, but otherwise we just forego it and put him down an hour earlier at bedtime.

The other thing is that when he starts thrashing around or trying to rile himself up, I'll leave the room and let him freak out for a little while before I come back in. This way, I can use the "nope, you're not trying to go to sleep - I'm leaving" threat and he will actually believe me and try to close his eyes and relax.

I was a hugely preggo mama at the time too, so I feel your pain! Good luck!!

"Too weird to live. Too rare to die." - Hunter S. Thompson