UPDATE on Pregnant facing custody battle. (more questions, please help)

[lilyahyah]

Hello you all!

So i took the advice and decided to get a free consultation from an attorney here. They answered alot of my questions, but left me a little confused on some too so I just wanted to talk about them a bit on here because I dont know what to do.
The attorney told me that once the baby is born I DO NOT automatically become the custodial parent. That I would have to go down to the attorney generals office and fill out a form on it and also set up general visitation with them too, like for the father and stuff.
But if i want it to be more in depth on what i want the visitation guidelines to be (eg: no over nights until 3-5 yrs of age, etc) or if he plans to fight me for custody I would have to hire a attorney for that. Either way she said it costs money. But a regular attorney costs 3-5 grand!!!!!!
So I wanted to know how much the attorney generals office would cost just to at least establish myself as the custodial parent right away, before i went out and had to fight and hire a expensive attorney but when i caled the attorney generals office they told me they dont handle custody cases or anything like that, they only do child support and medical and i will have to hire a regular family law attorney for that stuff. Omg so now I am like wth do i do??!?? Because the attorney i had the consultation with told me that not filing to make myself the custodial parent once the baby is born, the father can come and take the kid and leave the state or do whatever and I wont be able to call the police and show them anything to prove that i have custody of the kid.
This is really driving me crazy. I feel like his is ludicrous. Like I am having to literally buy my child. I dont have money for all of this, I already have to provide for her on my own and now all of this crap. So I have to g thru all of the pregnancy alone, buy all of her stuff alone and he can just come and take her and i cant do a thing?!? That is so INSANE and UNFAIR.
Man i HATE MEN.

Thanks for listening.

[Goodmom2008]

Are you married to the father of the baby? If the two of you were never married, you are the only proven parent. The attorney you spoke to gave you bad advice unless you and the father are married, then you will need to file as soon as the baby is born. As long as the two of you weren't married, the father has no custody rights at all. He would have to file with Texas, since that is where your, and the child's, residency is. I would consult with a different attorney.

The father of the baby, as long as you were never married to him, has no custodial rights at all and is considered a stranger to the child. The hospital won't let him see the baby without your permission. And they won't let him leave with the baby. He's not a proven parent at all. You, on the other hand, just gave birth to the baby and are the only one that they can prove is the parent of the baby.

You don't have to file for custody. You are presumed to have custody, just like my ex and I were when we took our kids him from the hospital (my ex and I were married at the time of birth). We didn't have to go and file for custody.

What the father has to do, if the two of you were never married, is file for any type of custody. First, paternity will have to be established, then custody and child support will be. This will take months. All the while, the baby is living with you. And you are establishing status quo as being the primary caregiver.

If you put your child in a daycare, he won't be able to pick the child up unless you give him permission to do so. Paternity and custody need to be established legally by him first.

[Latte Mama]

Maybe the attorney assumed she was going to put the fathers name on the birth certificate? How could a lawyer tell her something so wrong?

[Avani]

Yes to everything said above. If you do not put that man on the babies birth certificate he will have no rights whatsoever until he files. There is no need to file anything with the attorney general because there will be proof of a father. Any one could walk in and say they were a babies father, would that truly give them immediate custody rights? No, there is a process that needs to be completed. He would have to file paternity, get a dna test done and once paternity is established then custody and visitation would be ordered. Typically with custody mediation has to be done first. If you don't name the father and once father shows don't agree he is the father then that man will have a lengthy process to go through before any visitation can happen. You got some really bad advice.