Child support enforcement will help you get support. I will teach him how to be a father and to fight for joint custody rights to the child.

Some reading material:

FATHERLESS FAMILIES
All Children Deserve Two Parents
Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears has noted, children born to unmarried women and to those in cohabiting relationships “must often overcome increased risks of poverty, education failure, child abuse, delinquency, emotional distress and mental illness.”…….the lack of a father’s guidance in children’s lives is a major cause of their suffering. “Marriage is the best child welfare, crime prevention, anti-poverty program we have,”
http://www.barnesville.com/archives/266-gem-from-jim-octuplets…..html

Fatherless America : Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem
David Blankenhorn
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Fatherless-America/David-Blankenhorn/e/9780060926830/?itm=1

Fortune Magazine – Fatherless Families & Crime
“Ominously, the most reliable predictor of crime is neither poverty nor race but growing up fatherless.”
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1992/08/10/76732/index.htm

Stanford University – Divorce, Nontraditional Families, and Its Consequences For Children
"We know that children of divorced parents have more emotional and behavioral problems and do less well in school than children who live with both their Parent."
http://www.stanford.edu/~rmahony/Divorce.html

THE FATHERLESS GENERATION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siYERfu5Mvk

Joint Custody
"My parents divorced when I was 2 years old. Because I was so young, I cannot remember anything of how the divorce actually felt at the time. But 12 years later, I am quite content with my life and my parents. Unlike many divorced couples with children, neither parent has primary custody of me, but rather, I switch between my parents’ houses every other day, spending roughly equal time with my mother and my father."
Equal Time – A Teen’s Views On Joint Custody
Charlotte Juerge
Newsweek – Dec 15, 2008
http://www.newsweek.com/id/174698

Father Makes Two – James Cook (Deceased 03/09), Joint Custody Assoc.
By Margot Roosevelt, Nov. 11, 2003, Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,183968-1,00.html

Single mothers and the baby boom
For some, the growth of single-mother families is a sign of female empowerment. If children without fathers fare worse than children in two-parent families, say defenders of single mothers, the answer is better pay for women and better social programs. Yet even in Sweden with its generous welfare state, a major 2003 study found that children raised in single-parent homes were at significantly higher risk for addictions and serious psychiatric problems.
Single mothers and the baby boom
By Cathy Young – Boston Globe
May 26, 2009
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/05/26/single_mothers_and_the_baby_boom/

Mom Loses Custody For Alienating Dad
Ruling a ‘wake-up call’ for parents who use kids to punish ex-partners
http://www.thestar.com/article/576619

When Moms Are Gatekeepers
As many as a quarter of all new moms are actually blocking their husbands’ attempts at involved fathering
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1219962,00.html
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The ADULT way to handle this situation is that yes, you can still go through child support enforcement and have them issue a test, but it should be pointless because they should accept the DNA test that you have already had done as proof, unless it was from a place not recognized by the child support services office.

Now you need to prepare yourself, things aren’t the way they once were in the court, he is going to get visitation. And once again here Katy was wrong, if he has a record and has already served his time it will NOT count against him. Judges like to believe in the justice system that says once you have paid your debt to society by going to jail and gotten out and not had to go back to jail then you are forgiven. They kind of have to think that way, it is the law.

Now depending on the situation it is possible he could be restricted to supervised visitation. For example if he lived in a frat house with 4 other guys and they have beer, drugs and women rotating through there, then that is not a good envirnment for the child. But if the guy has a decent home, meaning a bedroom and a kitchen with food and running water, and he can prove that he has a stable income then there is no reason for the judge not to allow over night visits, so just prepare yourself.

Now just to be clear, if you were not married to the guy he currently has no rights, unless you live in Arizona. In the other 49 states in the eyes of the law you are the only one that has legal rights to that child and he will have to go to court and ask for his. So, from your end you can get child support services to verify that he is the father and you can get child support from him, but that still does not allow him any rights to see the child. He will have to file with the court and get his rights established, and then custody and visitation will be determined.

Prepare yourself for the fact that even though he hasn’t been there for you, or the baby, that that child is half biologically his and he has rights to see him or her. He also has an obligation to provide for him or her. And you as the Mom have an obligation to your child to make sure that they know who there father is. And if the dad WANTS to spend time with the child you shold encourage this, not try to do things to stop it. Ask anyone who grew up not ever meeting their father and we will all tell you that even if he is a piece of crud we would have liked to have met him and figured that out for ourselves. Not having a dad leaves a hole in you, and if this dad wants to see his kid and not just abandon him/her then you should do everything you can to encourage it, not sabotage it.