Happy 5 Months, Joseph! +50 First Things

First off, where have the last five months gone?

It seems like it has gone by too quickly. Then again, somedays seem so long. Just being honest, here. I love being able to be at home with Joseph but it does a body good to be out and about! Thankfully, we spent the day out yesterday and were able to take family pictures with my husband's whole family - immediate family (11 total). Joseph's first big family pictures! It was quite the experience, but it turned out really well. I know that my father in law kept putting off taking a large family picture until we were able to have a child in my arms and for us that made the day so surreal and amazing. It was an unforgettable experience and we are so happy that it turned out well. Joseph has been responding better to them the last few visits, but he still only wants Mama almost all of the time. Thankfully he loves his daddy almost as much as me, so that is really my only respite.

I love watching Joseph grow but it is fun to have him sleep, too :)

He is doing so well with moving around and communicating with us. He loves, loves to talk and play with his bear, ball, monkey, and little snail toys on his bouncy chair. He is rocking on his hands and knees and rolling over from his back to his belly, but gets stuck and cannot get back on his belly by himself. He did it twice and not again since. This makes for very long nights, though. He will roll over onto his belly during the night and our doctor told us he is still too young to sleep on his belly, so we have to place him back on his back. He then wakes up and the new going to bed cycle begins. We have to find a solution. Parenting suggestions welcome. He is also reaching and grabing, somewhat transferring toys and activating simple ones.

He has a new thing of being unable to tolerate a changing table at places. It is worrisome and downright silly. He does fine on his own changing pad w/pillow or on our bed but other than that, he SCREAMS like he is being tortured which is quite embarassing and make it really hard to change a poo diaper when he is thrasing around like that.

I also am fearing that I am spoiling him too much because he really likes to be held most of the time and while I am not usually bothered by this, I am thinking I am not doing him any favors getting him spoiled. I can place him in his bouncy for a while and sometimes in a play pen for about 5 minutes. Today, I placed him in his crib while I tidied up his room and he rolled over and hit his head on the rail because he pulled down the bumper to roll over.

If anyone has any tried and true methods to help me in this area, please share or even some resources that might help. I have not bought too many books because they are plain expensive and I can't seem to find much at our library to help with these concerns.

I am also needing to get him used to other people and will try to explore that more soon because he cries when he goes to most people, even his grandparents. I know we should get out more, but it has been tough on the budget with gas prices. I am thinking of looking into a mother's day out, something for 1-2 hours a week or something - for both of our sakes? Does this seem necessary or will this stage pass? You would think I would know more about parenting, but I feel so clueless most of the time.