Need some advice on this one? Should I wait for the courts or go about it myself?

I have a 4 month old baby girl, when she was just 2 days old i took her to see her father and he put his hands on me and would not allow me to leave; a few weeks later because my child was crying and i hung up the phone on him to attend to her he called ACS on me stating that i hit my child!! That was the last straw for me, i called the cops on him and told them that he put his hands on me and now he is making false accusations on me. Now this is not the first time he has put his hands on me but i broke up with him but chose to deal with him again for the sake of my baby.. But i tried and see that it is not going to work that way. After i called the cops i had to go to court i got an order of protection against him for 2 years. The order of protection was done in family court now i have one pending in criminal court because he threatened to kill me and was posting aggravating messages online. I don't want to stop him from seeing his child but i feel he is up to something i don't know what as of yet. We went to court and he told the judge he wants full custody then his moms is telling me that he doesn't want full custody he don't even know how to handle a child. She calls once a week to see how the baby is doing and if she can come see her. I know he uses his mom against me because we are cool. Se is trying to make me drop the criminal charges against him, but i am not going too. Now she wants me to bring the baby over to he house so that he can see her. Should i do that? I mean why am i in court for visitation and custody if they wanna do it out of court? I don't even understand why she is trying to help her son out when he recently punched her in the face, and i am sure its because of something she agreed to that dealt with me. She also has a pending case against him which i am sure she is going to drop, and i recently found out through the courts that he has alot of domestic violence disputes. Would i be putting my child in danger if i let him see her? Should i file for sole custody, seeing that i don't want anything to do with him? Will i be able to get sole custody?