By Susie Verrill

Susie Verrill stands up for herself. And it’s brilliant. When Baby Centre took it upon themselves to critcize her and other-half Greg Rutherford’s (middle) name choices for their son , Susie didn’t take it lying-down. Hell-no! she hit right back at them with a fab post on her excellent blog: MY MILO AND ME

Good on ya girl! It’s your kid, you get to call ’em what you like. Wouldn’t it be dull if we all called our offspiring the same name? My 95 year old Granny HATES the name Albert (let alone his middle name Maverick), we dreaded telling her about Woodrow – but guess what!? she LOVES it- no logic.

Before ‘name-gate’ Susie wrote a Guest List for Mother of All Lists. Here it is (and the last one on this topic): ‘What I Wish I’d Known Before I Became A Parent.’

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• Firstly, and most importantly, any negative part of parenting is very quickly overshadowed by all the brilliant/heartwarming/fuzzy stuff.

• For the first three months, scrap the cutesy outfits. Unless we went out and Milo needed a few layers to keep him warm, he wore a baby grow and leggings every day. No mini dungarees, no mini bow ties, no booties.

• However, you might want some cute stuff so you can take a photo and upload to instagram before getting them changed.

• Do whatever makes you happy in the early days. Ignore everyone else’s advice if it doesn’t suit you and go with the flow. Happy parents = happy baby.

• Babies really, really do grow out of everything quickly. So while it’s great to stock up on newborn nappies and clothes, be prepared to have a lot left over.

• Don’t freak out if you don’t meet the aims you set while pregnant. I was adamant Milo wasn’t wearing disposable nappies or using a dummy. Fast forward to me with a tiny newborn and the thought of cloth nappies were way too much for me to deal with. After nine weeks of reflux, in came the dummy.

• Babies don’t need tonnes of toys. I thought once Milo was a bit less of a baby-baby, he’d want to play with all the brightly coloured, noisy things. His favourite toys are currently: my phone charger, coat hangers, plastic bottles and a plastic soup ladle. Much cheaper!

• Ignore the competitive mums, you don’t need that in your life. Be supportive of what other women do and the choices they make and hopefully you’ll get that in return.

• Your relationship will almost certainly change. Over everything else; be kind to one another. If you’re feeling tired or stressed, give your other half a heads up; they’re not mind readers. If you have a silly tiff; apologise or at least talk it through. You don’t need a crying baby and an air of misery.

• Get out the house! Even if you look worse than the time you stayed out ’til 4am and slept in one of Victoria Station’s passport photo booth, get out and make the most of the day. Try making sure you get out before 12pm comes; a productive morning means an excuse for a lazy afternoon.

• Make the most of the naps – whether you sleep too, get some housework done, watch a boxset, finally reply to friends’ texts, crack on with a work project, get showered and dressed… whatever. Just make yourself happy.

• Some days will be bloomin’ awful. You’ll want to cry because you’re tired and your baby keeps slapping you on the head. Your other half won’t be doing what you want him to do and will ask ridiculous things like ‘have you seen my black socks?’ when you can’t remember when you last had a wee. Tomorrow will be a better day. Breathe it out (and go for a sneaky cry if you think it’ll help).

• Instagram will become your new best friend. Gosh there are some brilliant like-minded mums out there and a whole heap of women to give you some fashion/lifestyle/family inspiration, so scope them out and scroll away when you’ve got a free minute. They’re fantastic to have just a click away when you want some advice.

• You. Can. Do. Anything. Now. You made, carried and are now keeping alive a human. If there’s something you’ve really fancied then why not try giving it a go? If you can get through this relatively successfully, you can get through anything.