was planning to go P/T, but fixed rate mortgage ending. What to do?

[citybranch]

I've still got a while to sort this out but like to think ahead...
Our fixed rate deal ends in Nov 2010.
My mat leave and owed annual leave has me going back to work end of March 2010.

I was going to retrain at work F/T for a month using family as childcare (2 DCs) and then go P/T weekends only, but have realised as I am the higher earner we will not be able to remortgage in the November on my P/T salary.

So then I thought, I'll get a CM/nanny for 6 months in order to be on full time money when we get a new mortgage deal.
But my mum has worried me a little saying that they may go on affordability and refuse us that way. (I seem to remember they only went on payslips when we applied for the mortgage. We were paying childcare then too).

Am I going to have a problem whatever I do? Dropping onto the SVR worries me a bit because of the predictions re: interest rates going up. If we were to drop onto SVR now we'd be better off (Current deal is 6.15%) but this is all still a year off and things could well be different.

Financially, I would be much better off P/T than paying for childcare, but will the bank just go on the payslip?
We have savings to help out over this expensive time with 2 pre-schoolers (18 months or so until DS starts school and childcare will become a bit cheaper) so I can deal with either scenario, we just really would prefer a fixed rate deal for the forseeable future.

Also, does anyone know how long before a fixed rate ends can you get your new deal?
Thanks!

i think you can start to look for remortgage deals about 3 months before your current deal ends.
But I wouldn't be too hasty about fixing again as latest thoughts on base rate is that it might stay low until mid to end 2011. If your current mortgage provider current SVR is related to the base rate, you might find you are still paying less than you do now for a couple of years.

a new mortgage lender will take your current income plus your childcare costs into account so this may affect your ability to remortgage depending on how big your current mortgage is plus the equity you have - which depends on what happens to house prices between now and Nov 2010.

In your shoes, I would probably start looking at mortgage deals in August time next year but not commit to anything in a hurry.