Affordable childcare options in San Diego - any advice?

I have 16 kids and I need to interview and work without a sitter. There are 16 people counting on me, so I am trying to be careful. I looked into subsidies but the forms are long. How long did subsidies take?

I swapped afternoons with another parent. It took some planning and saved us both money.

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it last year, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.