I am with ExpatAl here, pregnancy and new motherhood is the time you should cut yourself some slack, nothing more healing than a big old moan sometimes.
Expat mentioned earlier in the thread that childcare costs are deductible in Belgium agains tax. They are here as well, in a way, if your employer runs a childcare voucher scheme you can pay for childcare out of pre tax salary (up to a certain amount). If you jointly earn less than 41K and both work +16 hrs you are eligible for additional tax credits which are fairly substantial, so worth checking out. A new scheme is proposed where 20% of childcare costs up to £6K annually back, but this is not law yet.
My local nursery (as in, down the street) charges £60 a day for a fulltime place (that does include breakfast & tea), which would come to £1,200 a month, times two! EEK. It is quite a posh nursery so I am hoping there are some cheaper ones around (although I think £55 is pretty much the going rate). For that type of money I think I could employ someone!
There should be a scheme to link up parents in need of childcare and lonely pensioners that would quite fancy some surrogate grandparenting!
My next door neighbour who popped out no 5 over Easter had a shouting match on the street this morning with one/several of her children. They play in their garden, which resembles a tip, seriously, she keeps stacks of old clothes in the paddling pool. Why? I really hope she won't offer any baby sitting services ...
I think I may go and check out the sun in my (tidy) garden :-) !