2 year old dropping nap but waking at night

[user1474565301]

My 24 month old has been sleeping through for months, but always a problem napper. Since May last year, on the advice of my health visitor and to improve my pnd, I have been getting her to nap by going out in the car or pushchair.
I am now expecting DC2 mid May, so I can't maintain the car naps when I have a newborn. I tried to get her napping in her cot, but every day for a week involved lots of crying and struggling only to get a 25 min nap on me and then waking grumpy. It was affecting my mental health again, so I gave up trying and resolved to let her just drop if she wanted to.
For the last 4 days, she has not napped at all and has managed to keep going with just an hour of quiet time watching TV with me. This is all very well, but she has also started waking at night and not going back to sleep for 2.5 hours. Exhausting at 7 months pregnant.
I think she is waking because she is going to bed overtired and still needs a nap, but how do I make this happen without going back to making special trips in the car every day???
I would really appreciate some help please.
Thanks.

It does sound like she’s overtired.

It’s hard. The ideal would be to get her asleep in her cot for a nap... but... if she really won’t then why can’t you take her out for a walk to do it? Will you have a double buggy? Once baby arrives you can just walk them both.
I found DD2 fell in with DD1s routine quite easily because she never knew any different!

Thank you, newmumwithquestions. I was trying for the cot, as I'm so tired. I suppose though, walking every day is better than being awake for hours each night!

Does anyone else have any advice/thoughts or experience of this sort of thing?

Anyone?

Why won't you be able to do car naps with a newborn?
How long do you have to walk with the buggy to get her to sleep? Can you just walk around the block until she drops off, then head home and let her sleep while you have a rest?

Paul Calf, thanks for replying.
I could do car naps with a newborn, but I'm worried about the practicalities. What will happen when I stop the car and dd1 had fallen asleep, but dd2 wakes for a feed and wakes dd1 all the time?
Pushchair naps are also an option, but some of the time, it will be raining and for the week or so after birth, I won't be able to do that. Dd1 takes 20 of walking in the pushchair to go to sleep and only stays asleep if I keep moving.
Maybe I'm over thinking it?

When Dc2 was born, dc1 still needed a nap, but would only have it in the car or pushchair. It wasn't really a big deal. I had dp around for the first two weeks, and by the time he went back to work I was physically quite well - birth was much easier the second time - and I was able to push dc1 in the pushchair while carrying the baby in a sling. We also did car naps sometimes, once dc1 was asleep then I sat in the car with her and I fed Dc2 as and when needed (bf so not a problem).

The other thing that happened was that dc1 started to go to sleep if we were all snuggled on the sofa together. I would never announce nap time, but if I sat down at the right time of day to feed the baby, and gave her a cuddle at the same time, she sometimes dropped off.

Thank you, you have been very reassuring. I'm going to stop worrying too much.