Childcare while job hunting, what worked? (update)

I have 4 kids and I need to interview and work without a sitter. There are 4 people counting on me, so I am trying to be careful. I looked into subsidies but the forms are long. Is there an emergency option?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 3 months ago, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.