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fight fight fight. As you are in SC you have a chance at full custody with her having visitation (preferrably supervised). Since her father has been implicated due to videotape and perjury, her 4 previous husbands (unstable environment) PAS'ing the kids, Fight for everything now. This is not the best environment for your kids.

What state are you in? We had a signed agreement from my husband's ex for an extra day. She backed out - at least we found out beforehand - and my husband would have gone to jail for kidnapping if sd hadn't been returned when she wanted her. You won't get to see the kids until court, and maybe even not then if it's continued. If it is continued, insist on at least 1 phone call a week for husband to talk to his kids. Make sure day and time are ageed on before you leave the court house. skid 1 will recognize the truth when he sees it. right now he might just be so angry at both parents he doesn't want either one. And skid2, if anything like mine, is a lot smarter then you think. My husband finally started standing up to his ex-wife when we finally got a juvenile court judge as our lawyer three years ago. my sd is 10 next month.
What is ex's reason for denying visitation?

Congratulations and good luck:D

What state are you in and do you live in the same county? The child is 5 - school age. All she has to do is argue it would be too unstable for the child to be attending school from 2 different households.
Fight for shared physical custody if you live close enough to each other. Be wary of the wording for joint legal custody. we thought we had it, but mother as primary custodian got to choose schools, doctors, etc., which screwed us big time when child started school.

As part of the divorce papers there will be a visitation agreement. From the date the visitation agreement is signed, any previous agreements no longer apply. Be careful, tho. My husband's ex had added in that no unrelated members of the opposite sex were allowed overnight when the child was present. This would mean his fiance, or him and the kids, would have to sleep somewhere else. (It did not state opposite sex to who - my husband or his daughter.) His ex is doing her best to alienate everyone in your family. Been there and still going through it.

My stepdaughter's life at her mother's is one big secret, from what she ate for dinner, to what she did on the weekend. We find out about her playing soccer when my husband finally makes phone contact and she says she didn't get his msgs b/c she was at soccer practice. We tell her that there is nothing we do at our house with her (activities, special events) that are secret. There is nothing that we do with her that should be kept secret, otherwise we wouldn't be doing it. It is her choice whether or not she wants to tell her mother what she did with us, and it's her choice whether she wants to tell us what she does at her mother's. If I ask her something and she doesn't want to answer or has been told not to tell, then she can tell me "let's talk about something else, or I don't want to talk about it."

Being in Georgia changes everything. Georgia and Alabama are the only two states left that are completely backwards. They call it the good ole' boys law. I'm curious to know what county you and your ex are in. My husband and I just moved from Georgia to Louisiana. His ex filed a pet for mod of custody in her county. Even tho our county retained jurisdiction, and even tho we have a lawyer in our old county,  we now have to find a lawyer in her county to fight the bull, just because she doesn't want to drive for visitation, and b/c she lives on the other side of the state from where we lived. Fight, fight, fight. The laws are changing everyday in Georgia to give father's more rights. I'll help any way I can.

Has your ex stopped using your last name? Even tho you're not the father, the new baby might have your last name just b/c she hasn't changed her name. This might cause an even bigger mess.

Definately record any and all conversations with DFCS and any other county, state, whatever officials. Record everything you possibly can. I've had police officers tell me I had to stop videotaping my husband's exwife - she had called the police and was denying visitation - so I put the camera down, but still kept recording sound. My experience with DFCS has been that they rarely tell you all of your rights, they have a tendency to just tell the information they want you to know. Don't ever stop fighting, and don't ever admit to anything you haven't done.