Nursing side-lying in bed was my solution to this problem. DD stopped nursing to sleep at bedtime around... 14mo? Maybe 16? She still nurses to sleep for her (now only one) nap, and I strongly suspect that the moment she stops nursing to sleep for her nap is the moment she stops napping.
I carried DD a lot - I have a bunch of carriers, and usually carried her on my back once she was old enough for it.
At 2.5yrs, she's certainly better, but a lot of it is reading her and "paying the meter" the way she needs it. For instance, she has a lot of trouble transitioning from sleep to wake, so in the mornings and after nap, I know that I need to just spend the first half hour with her, maybe just holding her, but not trying to go away from her and do other things. And, if I know that I need to do something later in the morning, I need to spend 10-15 minutes with her so I can go do something for 10-15 (less when she was younger) on my own. It's also about keeping sound levels down where she prefers them and other ways to "meet her" part of the way.