Legalising my status, please advise

[Olazee]

Hello everyone and thanks for being each other's keepers. God bless you all. I am a newly registered member, stumbled on some similar posts to my current situation but I still have some pluses and minuses that are giving me concerns.

Here is my immigration history: I came into the UK in October 2008 on a student visa. I extended my stay twice on a Tier 4 and my last LTR expired in June 2012. Prior to the expiration, I applied in March 2012 for PSW with ACCA Fundamentals and was refused in September 2012 with a right of appeal.
The appeal process dragged as I won the First tier appeal but the Home Office again re-appealed against it and I later lost the Upper tier appeal in 2013. Because I didn't want the 28 day period elapse after the decision of the Courts was served, I made an application on the Form FLR(O) on the basis that I have a child in the UK(even though I didn't meet up with the requirements, just wanted to make an on-time application anyway), I was also refused.

At this point, my Immigration advisor advised he put in a JR but HO didn't respond. He later advised I put in a fresh application on FLR FP as my partner has legal status(he's actually my husband but we married under the Islamic law). This was also refused as the HO said neither is my partner a settled person or my child a British so they can't consider my family life. Capita contacted me too and advised I make a valid application or leave the UK. Over this period, I have been working with my former employer and each time they confirm my status from the HO, it usually coincided with when my application is with them so HO has always told my employer that I have a right to work but not more than 20hrs /week as my last LTR is a student visa.

At this point, I had to 'buy' time because my partner would be due for his ILR in December 2014 and in order not to be stopped from work, I applied for a Derivative Residence card in June 2014. The HO then sent me a Certificate of Application which states that I have right to continue in employment or I can use the document to seek employment. I was later refused in October 2014 on this too but I was advised that I can re-apply if I think I still have a derivative right.

Since then, I didn't make any application cos I wanted my partner to have his ILR first. Now, he got his ILR on 15/12/2014 and we have submitted an application for our child to be registered as a British.

My questions now are:
Have I been working illegally and will that count against me?
Am I qualified to apply for the 5 year parent route on the Form FLR(FP)?
Can someone please explain the one-year ban as I've seen it been used for overstayers?
Can I submit my Islamic marriage certificate with my application cos I've never submitted it before with my previous applications? This is because I know they will not accept us as married so I've been marking unmarried partner as my status
Can I in the mean time still apply on the derivative application pending the time my child's citizenship certificate will be received? This is because I will still be eligible to work so far I'm able to produce a letter from the HO to my employer because the little I earn still goes a long way.

My plans are:
Apply for the derivative now which will take around 3 months pending the time my child's certificate comes through
Once the certificate comes through, apply on the Form FLR FP as a mother of a British(not sure of the 5 or 10 years though),I will still fill in my partner's details and evidences that we've been living together so as to count towards the consideration of my family life

Sorry for my epistle, just wanted you to have an understanding of my stance, thanks in anticipation for your help and advice. God bless you always.