Advice for a father

[jasonb]

My girlfriend and I have been having trouble lately and we just had a little girl 4 months ago. She is back and fourth between her ex husband and I. She divorced him but is still involved with him. He has been violent towards me and I feel it would be bad to have my daughter there. They have a child as well and he has more custody than she does of their daughter.
I work from home and am with my daughter 24/7 while she is out being a kid still, at the bars, going to vegas, out every night and when she is home rarely spends any quality time with our daughter. I need to know how I can obtain custody so I may control how our child is raised and make sure she is brought up properly and in a safe enviroment. I do not want to take my daughter from her mothers life but I need to be the primary parent for my litle girls best interest.
Any advice on what the best first step may be?

[iceclimber]

what state do you live in?

first off. you should begin to document everything. start a journal of how much time you care for your daughter, how much time mom spends with daughter, out partying. (dates, times, witnesses, etc..)

this website has excellent software for that, but you can also use a regular journal to take notes.
try to be the one to take the child to the doctor, be sure the physician makes a note in the child's medical record 'child brought by dad'. you have many opportunities for this with 6 month and 1 year immunizations. learn the nurses by name.

you want to establish documented proof that you are the primary caregiver for your child.