How are people juggling babies and work

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My DH and I are thinking about starting a family this year, and I am interested to know how people are doing it. For context, DH earns a good wage and travels around the UK for work. We don't live near any family or even friends (we relocated from London to Buckinghamshire to buy a house). At the moment, I'm commuting twice a week to London for work, and I think my company would be fine with me going back part-time after the MAT leave. Just curious about other people situations after MAT leave.

We didn’t have any family to help, they were all still working themselves. This was pre childcare credits, so we had to pick up the full cost ourselves and we were better off if we both worked full time than one of us dropping to part time.

We were all out of the house from about 7.45am to 6.15pm Monday to Friday (no WFH). DC were fed dinner at nursery so we only had to take care of feeding ourselves, which took some stress off. There was work travel involved too, so we’d prep as much as we could beforehand to make it easier for whoever was left behind!

I found a daycare near work. I told work I had to work max 9.30-6pm. It worked with that particular job. Second baby and the daycare fees were more than my day rate. So I stopped working. Fortunately my DH was a high earner.
A friend had a live in nanny with her three kids as both she and her husband had to travel about once a month with their jobs. No family nearby.

My dc is 10 now so going back a bit, but i returned to work when they were 10/11 months old 3 days a week. She did 2 days in nursery 1 day with granny.
When she was 2 i went full time again, she did 3 days in nursery 2 days with granny. One day a week my dad collected her from nursery- went to my house and started tea for us all which was a massive help. We were all in office each work day no wfh, we choose a nursery near our home, not work- so that if it was an emergency hopefully a grandparent could get there if needed if we were too far out.
Dh anf I also used to tag team it- he would do drop off at nursery for example and that meant i could be at work for 8am and then i could finish at 4/4:30 to do collection.

It was tough but we made it work!

We both went part time, we also picked a nursery that was near both our works (we worked in the same city), both of us being part time also means we need very little childcare during the school holidays, so we ‘waste’ very little annual leave and use it instead when we want a holiday/to all be at home together for a week or two. On our nursery days we staggered our hours too, I would do drop off and so start a bit later, he would go in earlier so he could do pick up.

I have two kids. It's a massive juggle. I commute to London with my youngest who I take to nursery there and my eldest is in school. I commuted with her as well until she started school. With 1 it was pretty straightforward, with two and adding school hours into the mix it's madness. We also don't have any family support nearby so it's all down to us and the emergency back up of other school mums when the sh*t hits the fan.
Do be prepared to have plans A, B, C and D, particularly with commuting as there's always problems with trains and getting stuck in London or partway home with a toddler in tow and another child in after school club that's about to shut is stress !
We all managed it though, just be prepared to be flexible and expect things to go AWOL sometimes and that's totally ok.

I went down to 3 days after mat leave and DD goes to a local nursery. We don't have family or friends to help (we have family nearby but realistically they all work or are juggling their own kids during the week). We didn't leave London to have dcs which was the biggest help. Nursery and work (mine and DH's) are within walking/cycling distance, so we don't have to worry about travel disruptions or being asked to collect early (in case of illness). We have a good local network with other nursery families and have play dates, parties, local recommendations etc, which we'd miss out on if it wasn't nearby. We both go into the office on work days but can wfh when necessary, so can deal with illnesses and appointments. DD is in nursery for 8 hours due to short commute and we have dinner as a family. DH and I used to travel with work pre-dcs but have arranged it so that neither of us have to. Nursery is open 50 weeks a year so we never have to worry about term dates.

Long commutes are all fine when everything goes to plan, but add rail cancellations and sickness into the mix and things get tricky. Everything gets harder at school age and you have to deal with wraparound and school holidays.

We paid for childcare. On my long days commuting into London (2-3 days a week), Dh did everything as I was out of the house 6am-7:30pm. He worked long days on my shorter days. Basically, paid childcare and flexible working for both of us.