Over the last four years, I have cobbled together child care from daycare, babysitters and family members. I arrange for one full day each week to attend business meetings and focus on intense work projects, and then grab two-hour stretches during the rest of the week. Most of my work gets done in the middle of the night.

My marketing consulting business has grown up with my children; as the kids get older and more manageable, my work demands increase proportionately (basically, I never have any free time). Having a third child will reset the clock to zero; if I want to continue to work at my current level, I have to make different child care plans from the tried and true ones I used with my older two.

Or do I?

I am a huge proponent of crowdsourcing. The New York Times recently conducted an experiment challenging its readers to solve a medical conundrum. Instead of one person beating his head against the wall trying to unravel a complicated issue, "a single physician dealing with a chal­lenging case would have, poten­tially, access to the expertise of mil­lions of people, perhaps a few who have genuine insight and have seen a rare sit­u­ation before." (http://www.medicallessons.net/2011/03/crowd-sourcing-a-medical-puzzle/)

Who doesn't like speedy, accurate answers?

I brought my situation to Claire Jones of The Hoboken Nanny Company. With a 17-year background in nanny screening and professional British nanny training, I figured Jones would be the ideal person to help me crowdsource a solution.

Right off the bat, Jones suggested something that never occurred to me. After I detailed my family's needs and concerns, she recommended hiring temporary nannies. There are so many nannies out of work right now that many of them would consider a short-term part-time assignment to bridge the gap between full-time jobs. Jones said, "If you have someone work from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m., that is a standard nine-hour shift." I can expect to pay a small premium over the standard rate of $15/hour, but as long as the job is only for one or two months while the nanny is between long-term families, it should be fairly easy to find someone. Or several someones.

The goal would be to get my family over the newborn hump and then resume my usual affordable pattern of part-time daycare, college-educated part-time baby sitters, and help from my mom. The additional benefit of using temporary nannies is I avoid nanny taxes.

Unfortunately, even if I avoid nanny taxes, I can't dodge the liability risk. Jones knows of many cases where the nanny can and does sue the family when she was injured in their home.

However, Jones tells me that most nannies won't be willing to interview with me because they don't want to sign up for a family with three children, so maybe I don't have to worry about it.

To read more about what makes Kathy Zucker tick, check out her blog at http://momcondoliving.com/ and follow her at http://twitter.com/kathyzucker