I think it would really depend how much income you NEED to bring in and how regular that income NEEDS to be.

I see ads posted for work from home all the time but they all strike me as either fake or something that you need to have a lot of skills for and not have kids around while doing the work because you are technically working a full job, you just don't leave the house to go to your office.

Aside from that you end up with the selling stuff which strikes me as being random amounts of money and a whole lot of work...or stuffing envelopes and well...I suspect after a few months of that you'd be begging for poopy diapers again!!!

What about closing the daycare but taking one child the same age as your new baby (when you are done mat leave) and just having the one paying child. That is what I do now and it really made a world of difference. I don't make nearly as much of course but I am still home with my daughter and don't pay daycare, don't need a second car and technically we save money by my being home to cook meals and clean the house because I am certain we'd be paying for cleaners if I was working outside the home! It is still work but it is very different than running the daycare kind of work.

Or, what if you got a tenant for the basement again and then took in one child...would that be enough money? Then you could work outside the home once your youngest is in school full time.