The Developing Brain

So it has happened: Two people of different sexes – by choice or by accident, in a relatively short period of shared joy – have set in motion a process that culminates after approximately 280 days of pregnancy in a miracle. A miracle that will spare them from boredom for the next eighteen years and beyond by regularly plunging them into fright and delight.

This topic is about the ontogenesis of both the miracle and the fright and delight. Because nothing pushes us to our limits quite like our own child. And nothing can make us similarly happy in the long run. So we’re talking about the time spent in the womb, which is still underestimated today. And we’re talking about the years that follow – during which you can do a lot right and quite a few things wrong. We’re talking about the pressure parents put on themselves for precisely this reason. About underestimated infants and important developmental milestones.

But first, our proven expert Nora Schultz (she’s a mother of three) provides an initial user manual.

P.S. At this point, we simply can’t resist sharing an excerpt from Harry Mulisch’s “The Discovery of Heaven”: 

Anna has just told Onno that she’s pregnant. The question is how big the baby is now.
Anna: “About the size of a bubble of frogspawn, I think. Like you were at that age.”
Onno: “Restrain yourself! Me and a bubble of frogspawn – you must be crazy! I sprang spontaneously from my mother’s fontanelle, in full regalia, with shield and spear; my father fainted at the sight, the planets tumbled from their orbits, and wonderful signs were visible on all the Lord’s paths.”