HELP!

dad(me) works nights. mom stays home and takes care of the 5 month
old. mom is getting cabin fever, and dad doesn't make enough to treat
her like he wants to. we take walks, and make an event out of shopping,
but mom is becoming a recluse. any tips? cheap or free baby friendly
fun? it doesn't help that we are in a new place and don't know anyone.

dragonlady...

BTDT (except DH worked days). Gave birth just a few months after moving
cross country, suddenly home full time, didn't know a soul. It was
pretty awful.

Many folks have given you good advice about where mom might find some
folks to spend time with, and that's important.

However, speaking from my experience, one of the things that started to
happen was that I started to get to know "mom" friends, DH started to
get to know work friends, and we began to drift apart. My "daytime"
friends weren't interested in extending our friendship into a
full-family affair, and DH's work friends weren't, for the most part,
really friends. It became critical that we find a way to build a
social life together.

For us, that meant finding a faith community with which we were
compatable. (I was pretty surprised, as we had not been religious.)
That group of people have become very dear to me, and, through our
involvement there, DH and I know many of the same adults and have a
social life together. (Plus, it's free . . . or at least, only costs
what we decide to pledge -- back then, very little, because we had very
little!)

I'm not sure where else you might look for social outlets that are for
both of you, and that include full families -- but I'd try pretty hard
to find something!

Anonymama...

Find a playgroup! If you tell us where you are, someone might have
advice on how to find one in your area.