Fighting sleep

Hey so I have a ? for all you moms in the regression or if you got past it-what do you do when your baby REFUSES to nap? Do you just let them stay up fussy and irritated until they pass out or…? I tried 3x to put my 5 m/o down for a nap this morning and he wouldn’t fall asleep so he’s going on 3.5 hours of being awake. What do you guys do when your lo is being extremely difficult? Just let them pass out on their own or fight them to sleep with rocking, bouncing, whatever? We are trying not to create sleep associations at this stage so it’s been hard. Also if your lo wakes up at say 3 am and is not settling how long do you try until you give up and just play with them? I’m a second time mom but my daughter wasn’t this difficult at all.