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I dropped my daughter off with her mother on Thursday. On the way to drop her off, I told my daughter we were going to see her mother. She tells me ugh uh (as in no) and said "I wanna see daddy". So I recently bought a voice recorder and I had it and waited a little bit and said it again and recorded her saying it. When I dropped her off, I had it recording in my pocket and my daughter started saying ugh uh again telling her mother that she wanted to see daddy. She kept on saying this and her mother told her that that wasn't nice and had an expression on her face as if she didn't like hearing what she was hearing. This is not the first time my daughter has done this but the first time i've had a voice recorder to record it. Will this have any effect in court or  be worthless? My daughter is only 20mo old and it's not like I could tell her before hand to say all of that.

Now its the weekend (Friday) and I've kept my daughter every weekend for months because her mother basically wants to party. She calls me and tells me she's started her in daycare and she'll be going there 3-4 times a week. And I usually get her on Friday but says I can get her tomorrow (Saturday) because daycare is not open.

In my eyes it looks like she's trying to keep me from my daughter now, all because my daughter has been saying she wants to see daddy. And I have no  legal visitation or anything because we haven't been to court yet.

I don't think I could represent myself very well. I will be nervous enough just going to court with an attorney.

I have an appointment with him this week and I am going to tell him to either get something accomplished or I will find another attorney.

Yes I have witnesses who will testify. I have kept every receipt for everything I've bought my daughter. I do not have any CS obligations as my daughter's mother and I were never married, and we have not been to court yet. But yes  I have supported my daughter and have receipts to prove it.

There is no lawyer in my city who specializes in family law/child custody. There is a lawyer in a neighboring city who's main focus is family law and I talked to him, but he referred me to the lawyer I have now. I believe I have a good lawyer, but he seems busy or unorganized. This is my second lawyer. Will it look bad to the judge for me to keep changing lawyers? I've made another appointment with my lawyer for next week and if he doesn't get off his but this time I will find another one. I can find a custody specialist in my state but not anywhere near me. I heard it's better to have a lawyer that knows the judge, though. Is this true and what if I brought in an out of town lawyer who doesn't know the judge?

Thanks you for your prayers, they are much needed.

If my lawyer will get her medical records it will prove that she has used alcohol and smoked pot herself. After she got out of the nut house she was the same, and I have email from her stating how she wants to commit suicide right after she got out.

Since her mother and I were never married, she has custody automatically and I have no rights to my daughter until I establish them. So when she was 2mo old, and she had told me to take her to court because I wouldn't see her again, I went ahead and filed for sole custody. I didn't expect to get full custody then and at the time she told me to take her to court, she refused to let me see my daughter for 6mo, but since my daughter was 8mo old she started letting me see her again and now I have her most of the time.

Reasons for custody: She has had hallucenations of people telling her to kill herself, attempted suicide, violent temper, drugs. She has told me over the phone on three occasions that she was going to end up beating my daughter, unfortunately I was not recording at these times. She is unstable, has had 4 jobs already this year. My daughter is always sick when she comes from her mothers house and smells like smoke and can't breathe. She has called a daycare to ask them how to discipline our daughter because she doesn't know how. If my daughter gets bad sick throwing up or bad cold she drops her off at my house for a week at a time with some excuse made up of why she needs me to keep her but the real reason being she doesn't want to hear my daughter scream and cry and get up with her in the middle of the night when she's sick. The list goes on....

I do not have joint custody or anything, no rights yet. Yes I want sole custody as I feel thats what is right for my daughter and that I am the better parent. My daughter has even cried many times when having to go back with her mother, and now that she is starting to talk good, she is even saying "i wanna see daddy" when going back to her mother. It's obvious that there is no mother-daughter bond, in my opinion. I might not ever win this, but will feel better knowing that I fought as hard as possible for my daughter.

I have over a years worth of documentation, and document everytime she is in my care, although I have not used Parenting Time Tracker and will have to look into it. I have plenty of pictures of my daughter and I but do not have the type of camera that has a date stamp. What is a LPC? I have checked a while back about recording conversations in my state and is legal as long as one party (me) is aware of the recording.

I filed for custody of my daughter in Dec '04 when she was 2mo old after her mother "AS" told me to take her to court if I wanted to see my daughter again. I was never married to "AS". (I have had paternity test done) She has a history of mental illness, suicide attempts, hallucenations, etc and was put in mental hosp when she was 1mo pregnant. The lawyer I had at the time of filing would never make any progress in the case and started saying I would never get custody and said this without even looking at any of my evidence against her including emails, phone recordings and her mental records. In Sep '05 I fired him and was referred to a another local attorney from a child custody attorney in a neighboring city. This attorney is well respected and recently won custody for a father.

He filed for a deposition and we had it in Nov '05. He did not sit down with me before the deposition to look at any of the information or evidence I had against her. At the deposition, Of course "AS" lied about everything. She said she doesn't drink, and never used drugs which she certainly did at the time she was put in mental hosp and her records should prove this. This girl lies about everything and anything. Since the deposition there has been very little progress. I have made appointments to talk to my lawyer and the last appointment he had the judge set up a hearing date which was in March. As the hearing date was approaching I was trying to get in touch with my lawyer and couldn't. He had not prepared me for this hearing or prepared himself. Did not have her medical records, nothing. The day before hearing, his secretary called me and said there had been a continuance and they would let me know when the next hearing date was.

"AS" has been seen at the liqour store with my daughter lately by a relative. There have been two different occasions, one where there was a bud light bottle cap in her diaper bag after I had picked her up from "AS" . And a second occasion where there was a bud light bottle label in the bag. (I know she drinks around my daughter but how do I prove this?) I had mentioned to my lawyer before about hiring a PI but said he didn't think it was necessary. He said I would get custody and probably even make her pay child support.

I have my daughter probably 80% of the time, "AS" 's mother has her probably 15% and "AS" might have her 5% of the time.  "AS" always calls with excuses of why I need to keep her. I am usually running back and forth every day or so 20 miles there and 20 miles back to pick up my daughter. "AS" has a boyfriend who is 13 yrs older than her. She has been taking off work lately to go with him to the hospital to see his mother but when she is at work and our daughter needs to goto the hospital or doctor she can't take off and needs me to take her. "AS" 's ex friend told my sister that "AS" has spent the night many times with my daughter at her boyfriends house.  My daughter's 1st birthday, "AS" didn't want her that day and had other things to do. This past mother's day, she didn't want her then either. I think all she wants is a check each month.

I could go on and on about evidence I have on her but it would be very long. Do lawyers usually work like this? Take their time and not prepare? The more time goes by the more time my daughter is in an unstable environment. She's only 1 and i'm sure she's confused about all this back and forth stuff. Plus i'm 98% sure "AS" is drinking around her and that puts my daughter at risk. What do I do about this taking so long. I've been patient for way over a year. I have documented everything. Anybody with advice who has been in similar situations would be appreciated.

Thanks