Getting baby down for nap with 2 year old around

[Squashpocket]

I have an 8 month old and a 2.5 year old and I'm struggling to get the 8 month old down for a nap with my eldest around. How do other people do this?!

The little one is a great sleeper and if he could have 1 or 2 minutes of quiet and dark he would be straight off to sleep and would sleep through world war 3, but my eldest can't stay out of the room while I put the baby down.

I've tried to explain to my eldest that he needs to play on his own and then we can have special mummy and him time but he doesn't understand.

I don't want to get in the habit of putting the baby in the pushchair to sleep, it's not practical long term. Tips please on how else I can manage this stage?!

TV. iPad anything that is distracting enough to keep them busy.

I used to talk them for a walk. Baby fell asleep in pram, DD went to the park

I used to put youtube on the telly using a chromecast so I could control it from my phone. 2 year old watched telly downstairs. I would sporadically pause it from my phone until I heard him complain (ie that he was ok) and get baby to sleep. It's a difficult juggling act.

We had safety gates everywhere. So I could close one at the bottom of the stairs while getting baby to sleep upstairs. Gate across the kitchen door meant toddler was safe downstairs for a few minutes. Put TV on to keep him occupied. Also had a gate across baby's room so toddler couldn't actually get in to poke or prod 😁

Baby wearing might help, if baby will fall asleep on you while you tend to the toddler.