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Hi! I just was accepted off the waitlist at my top choice, so there is still hope!
I took two years off between my undergrad and grad school. I spent the first year working as a nanny full-time. From this I learned so much about infant development, and I briefly touched upon this in my essay. Then, in an attempt to make myself more appealing to graduate programs, I sought out care jobs that could relate to the field.
The first job I found was working with an infant with moderate unilateral sensorineural hearing loss. I loved working with him one-on-one and I was able to attend all of his EI treatments and various audiology appointments. I talked a lot about this experience in my statement because I was able to have this really unique position within the family: I acted as a caregiver, close with the family, but with my speech background I was able to act as a sort of liaison between the family and the professionals they worked with. 
Next I found a care job that was with a child on the Autism spectrum. I started this job after applying to school, but it lent this unique experience where, again, I was able to work with EI and speech-language pathologists as well as the family. I think both these experiences have helped me because I’ve been able to closely see how therapy involves the entire family.
all of this is to say that I would recommend looking into care jobs, particularly with a population of interest. At least where I am, you can make decent money off of a caregiver salary, and my experience working closely with the family and the speech therapists helped me stand out in my applications. I used care.com for the most part, but if you’re in a city or other populated area you could try searching mommy Facebook groups (seriously) and posting a little bit about you, your experience, and who you want to work with.