Semi-consciousness

A calf was born here on Monday, and since then it's been wandering around, getting to know its mother and the other calves and cows. I was watching it yesterday and wondered: when did its consciousness start? Did it get pushed out into the world, hit the air and the ground and suddenly start thinking and feeling? "Oh, whoa! I'm alive! Here's the world!"

I don't know whether consciousness is part of the fabric of our bodies (and thus begins in the pre-birth body-building process) or a separate something that has an on/off switch, tripped at the appropriate time.

It seems like a pretty fundamental question for a conscious being to ask. Funny it took me 42 years to think of it.

UPDATE

Not joking, I just published this post, read it through and panicked: "Oh shit! Am I 42? Is it 42? Am I 42 or 43?" and had to count up from my birth year. On my fingers.

Oh Lord give me strength... ;)