Yes, I have not only seen it, I've experienced it. We had a 3 year long custody battle with my husband's ex-wife. She had custody of their son prior to the temporary hearing. She was allowed to continue as his custodial parent for the temporary hearing. We then went to court for what was supposed to be the final hearing, but it turned out that the judge just issued another temporary order, this one good for 1 year. He chose to leave the child with the ex-wife, but he instituted a intervention plan in the court order (my stepson is special needs) and told us to return in a year for a review. When that year was up, my husband's ex-wife lost custody and my husband was given custody, even though he had not had it in the previous 3 years. So the 2 intiial temporary orders were overturned. However, the judges new order was also a temporary order good for 1 year and we were to go back to court again for another review. At the end of that year, the ex-wife just consented to leave primary custody with my husband so at that point, it was final.

One thing to mention, however, is that the ex-wife was very difficult to get along with in the first year that she had temporary custody. She was demeaning and derrogatory to my husband in front of the child, when she didn't get her way on something, she threatened him with not "allowing" him to take his son to tutoring (which he did once a week to help her out since he had to go twice a week), she did her best to alienate him from doctor's appointments (not tell him until the last minute and was as vague as possible), and she was held in comtempt of court (and found guilty) for having her boyfriends spend the night at her house when the court order specifically stated no visitors of the opposite sex after 9pm until 7am. So even though it is possible to lose custody in a final hearing, I think that most of the time it stays "as is" as long as the child is doing well and the custodial parent is making a reasonable effort to get along with the other parent and not be derrogatory, demeaning, or alienate them from their child's life. I think our case was somewhat extreme in the sense that even after jail time for contempt, she didn't learn her lesson.

As long as you can maintain a healthy, positive environment for the child as much as possible, you probably don't have anything to worry about. Just follow the court order as written and if you do need to compromise on something, just get it all documented.

Good luck!