This is very long and is an extremely serious situation, so any help that can be provided will be met with open arms.
To tell our tale as short as I can, lemme begin: me and my wife had our first child of who was born a premie; I was working 6 out of 7 days a week from early morning to early evening. Since our daughter was having to be taken care of in the hospital due to the premature birth and being 2.5 hours away from our home, going back and forth to the hospital was crippling. We decided the best option was to visit 2-3 times per week to see our daughter and check up on her, but due to the lack of constant visitation, DHS became involved due to the nurses thinking we had no interest in our child.
After a period of time, we got to take our daughter home for the first time, and for 1.5 months we had a blast until we noticed she was nearly constantly vomiting out her milk and was 1 point over temperature. We waited for 48 hours and noticed the temperature went up a little more and she refused to respond to feedings; paranoid and alert, me and my wife took her to the pediatrician where they stated that whatever she had we caught so early they couldn't diagnose it and sent her off to another hospital 2.5 hours away. They spent several days running tests and after a very long period of time they discovered that due to her condition, she had reflux and aspirated some milk, causing pneumonia.
They were shocked that we had caught it so early, and started to set up a plan for treatment of the reflux and the disease. For the first 48 hours they refused us to change diapers or feed her, and the ensuing travel and work times caused it to be nearly impossible to frequently visit. It caused so much stress on my job that I was quickly laid off, causing us to decide to be at the hospital 24/7 and job hunt online whilst being with our child. The nurses started a stir, like the ones before and brought in DHS due to our "not taking care of her" the first 2 days, and apparently us ignoring her over video games - of which in reality we were constantly job hunting and it in no way affected how we treated our daughter. They refused to have us sign papers and never asked permission for anything that they did with our child, and never gave us updates or information if something came up.
After DHS had been hounding us for some time and actively setting up a case due to "negligence," it was decided that my in-laws would visit as substitutes for us so we could find work. The doctors continued to ignore me and my wife and only gave my in-laws information or papers to sign, which were handed to us anyways because our custody. After an extremely long grueling fight, with DHS picking the side of the hospital no matter what and only stacking up false allegations - including where our "negligence" had caused her pneumonia (even though it was due to the medical condition) and we hadn't bonded with her - it was decided my in-laws would become guardians of our child.
Its been a year since the decision and the court won't hear our pleas until we are financially stable; my in-laws treat us like we're teenagers (we're in our mid twenties) and refuse to let us take care of our child and actively ignore any parental actions we take in their absence. They have been causing our daughter to lose sleep (she's at the waking up at night stage) by causing her to get poor sleep-onset association because they will pull her out of the crib during the crying process and will bring her into the living room with T.V. and bright lights at 3 a.m., keeping her from getting decent sleep, leading to separation anxiety. They won't listen to us, and any action we take to try to get her to learn to sleep in the crib is foiled by them forcefully taking over and removing her. She can't sleep easily anymore, and cries nearly constantly even during the day and is starting to not eat solid food much anymore (she's nearly 2 and we're starting to weane her due to doctor's request.)
Me and my wife are deeply depressed over the entire situation and are at a complete loss because we aren't allowed to act like parents only to watch by the sideline as the courts say we can't have her home and cannot contest the custody until we have a 5 figure income. We're at our wit's end and we're fighting every step of the way, but we can't get even one step forward when her parents are pushing us 2 steps back. What do we do...?
To tell our tale as short as I can, lemme begin: me and my wife had our first child of who was born a premie; I was working 6 out of 7 days a week from early morning to early evening. Since our daughter was having to be taken care of in the hospital due to the premature birth and being 2.5 hours away from our home, going back and forth to the hospital was crippling. We decided the best option was to visit 2-3 times per week to see our daughter and check up on her, but due to the lack of constant visitation, DHS became involved due to the nurses thinking we had no interest in our child.
After a period of time, we got to take our daughter home for the first time, and for 1.5 months we had a blast until we noticed she was nearly constantly vomiting out her milk and was 1 point over temperature. We waited for 48 hours and noticed the temperature went up a little more and she refused to respond to feedings; paranoid and alert, me and my wife took her to the pediatrician where they stated that whatever she had we caught so early they couldn't diagnose it and sent her off to another hospital 2.5 hours away. They spent several days running tests and after a very long period of time they discovered that due to her condition, she had reflux and aspirated some milk, causing pneumonia.
They were shocked that we had caught it so early, and started to set up a plan for treatment of the reflux and the disease. For the first 48 hours they refused us to change diapers or feed her, and the ensuing travel and work times caused it to be nearly impossible to frequently visit. It caused so much stress on my job that I was quickly laid off, causing us to decide to be at the hospital 24/7 and job hunt online whilst being with our child. The nurses started a stir, like the ones before and brought in DHS due to our "not taking care of her" the first 2 days, and apparently us ignoring her over video games - of which in reality we were constantly job hunting and it in no way affected how we treated our daughter. They refused to have us sign papers and never asked permission for anything that they did with our child, and never gave us updates or information if something came up.
After DHS had been hounding us for some time and actively setting up a case due to "negligence," it was decided that my in-laws would visit as substitutes for us so we could find work. The doctors continued to ignore me and my wife and only gave my in-laws information or papers to sign, which were handed to us anyways because our custody. After an extremely long grueling fight, with DHS picking the side of the hospital no matter what and only stacking up false allegations - including where our "negligence" had caused her pneumonia (even though it was due to the medical condition) and we hadn't bonded with her - it was decided my in-laws would become guardians of our child.
Its been a year since the decision and the court won't hear our pleas until we are financially stable; my in-laws treat us like we're teenagers (we're in our mid twenties) and refuse to let us take care of our child and actively ignore any parental actions we take in their absence. They have been causing our daughter to lose sleep (she's at the waking up at night stage) by causing her to get poor sleep-onset association because they will pull her out of the crib during the crying process and will bring her into the living room with T.V. and bright lights at 3 a.m., keeping her from getting decent sleep, leading to separation anxiety. They won't listen to us, and any action we take to try to get her to learn to sleep in the crib is foiled by them forcefully taking over and removing her. She can't sleep easily anymore, and cries nearly constantly even during the day and is starting to not eat solid food much anymore (she's nearly 2 and we're starting to weane her due to doctor's request.)
Me and my wife are deeply depressed over the entire situation and are at a complete loss because we aren't allowed to act like parents only to watch by the sideline as the courts say we can't have her home and cannot contest the custody until we have a 5 figure income. We're at our wit's end and we're fighting every step of the way, but we can't get even one step forward when her parents are pushing us 2 steps back. What do we do...?
