Mindy Kaling's Instagram Story Shows Breast Pumping In All Its Glory

When you become a parent, it's hard to not see the world in different ways. Everything takes on new meaning, as evidenced by Mindy Kaling's breast pump in her Instagram Story. It's just a picture of a breast pump on a chair in a nameless hotel room with the captions, "the loneliest breast pump" and "that all day press junket new mom life," but it speaks volumes. Kaling gave birth to her daughter Katherine back in December, and fans have only gotten a few glimpses into what her new mom life really looks like.

To no one's surprise — this is it. Not only is she seemingly working around the clock to promote A Wrinkle In Time, which comes out next month, she also has a new show, Champions, coming out early next month. And somewhere in between, she finds time to pump, just like busy new moms everywhere.

This press junket is actually the first public appearance Kaling's made since Katherine was born, according to People. She joined her Wrinkle In Time costars Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Storm Reid in Disneyland to hand out free ride passes to fans. Judging by the selfies she posted on Instagram, it was a solid first showing for the new mom. Even if she had to find a quiet place to pump every couple hours.

Fans were pretty surprised when the news broke that Kaling was pregnant. During a press appearance for, again, Wrinkle In Time, Oprah revealed that her co-star was five months pregnant. Although some people might have been a little peeved about having a friend confirm their pregnancy before they got a chance to do themselves, Kaling took it in stride. She told Ellen Degeneres just after the news broke:

If anyone is going to announce big news about your private life, Oprah Winfrey is the person. And you also can't be like, 'Hey, Oprah, zip it,' because she's almost like a religious figure.

She's got a point — you can't really tell Oprah to knock it off, even if you want her to keep a secret.

Kaling's been doing this new mom life all on her own. The 38-year-old has said that she "won't" reveal who the father of her child is and she really never should. Single mothers are still, even in 2018, even when you're a successful actress and writer, stigmatized, so watching Kaling represent with pics of her breast pump feels like a transgressive act. She makes it look easy, though.

Nothing is ever as easy as it looks on Instagram, though. Late last year, Kaling told Sunday Today that she was super nervous about becoming a parent. "I’m really happy that that’s what I project but right now I just feel so anxious," she said at the time.

“But I’d like to be the fun mom. I know I’m gonna be the dorky mom. So it could be kind of fun, too. I think that would be nice," Kaling added. Kaling named her daughter after her mother, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2012.

She said in the same Sunday Today interview that she hopes she can give her daughter the same sense of self that her mother gave her, which is really all you can ask for. Kaling said:

My mom was incredibly fierce and so devoted to us, just loved us and really wanted us to be happy no matter what we did. My career choice was not something that she was familiar with and she was just so supportive of that. And if I could give that to my child, just that open-mindedness, I’d be so happy.

From the looks of it, she most definitely will. And if her mother could see how much of a role model Kaling has become for women all over the place, she'd definitely be proud. Lonely breast pumps and all.

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