Your non-CIO nap strategy
I have two kids and with both of them I need a new nap strategy.
2 year old boy - Has always nursed to sleep. Stopped nursing to sleep for naps several months ago (he'll nurse but loses interest before falling asleep). For a few months now we've been driving him to sleep. Often we're coming home from a morning outing anyway and he's tired, and we do plan things that way on purpose. Other times we will just take him out for a drive. I'd love a new strategy for getting a (very stubborn) two year old to lay down and take a nap.
6 month old girl - She is generally a good sleeper, but doesn't nurse to sleep. She prefers to be rocked/worn to sleep, which I don't mind at all. I used to rock her in whatever room the boy was playing in and she'd fall asleep and I'd go put her down. She does a good job of going back to sleep if she wakes when I put her down. However, in the last 2 weeks or so she has become more aware of her environment and her body and she will struggle in my arms/carrier to look around, push away from me etc because she wants to see what's going on. If I put my son in front of the TV I can take her back to the darkened bedroom and rock her and she falls asleep much more quickly. Unfortunately that isn't always an option (or I don't want it to be the long term option) so I'm wondering if there's another strategy.
Re: Your non-CIO nap strategy
This exactly for my four month old! It's getting so hard. I, too, have an older DC--an almost two-year-old. It's difficult to get the baby to sleep with DD1 in the room, as it's very distracting to DD2. She won't even BF if DD1 is running around.
I'm very against CIO, too. I was still nursing my DD1 to sleep when she was 17 months and I was very pregnant. We had a bit of a struggle with her, sleep-wise until recently. It got to the point where we were rocking her for like an hour, hour and a half, and she was still just yammering away, playing with my face, etc. Finally, right after DD2 was born, I just started laying her down, tucking her in with her stuffed toys, and leaving the room. She cried for a few minutes, and if it started escalating, I'd go back in immediately and rock and repeat. But usually (especially after the first two nights), in less than 5 minutes, she'd calm totally down and start talking to her stuffed Elmo and singing. I'd go back in every five minutes while she was awake and tuck her in and say "What a big girl! Momma's here and I'll be back to check on you soon." Maybe that is a form of CIO, but I don't really think so, since I never let her just sit there and cry. It worked really well, because she was old enough to understand that we were not abandoning her, but that there were limits to rocking her to sleep. If that makes sense?
Anyway, just what worked for us. I did that at bedtime and then started doing the same at nap time. We still rock her for a short period, but not to sleep. We lay her down and she sometimes will now be up in her crib talking and singing to herself for up to 45 minutes. But no crying, and is very happy when we leave. She says "bye bye momma!"
Also, try maybe getting a fun night light. We got DD1 a big light-up moon that is on her wall (from Amazon). There is a remote and she can turn it on and off. She loves it, and we use it at naptime, too.