Jennifer Garner

Jennifer Garner, who stars in the upcoming film, "The Kingdom," says she's grateful that she can balance her career with motherhood.

"My job is great to have as a mom," she tells Marie Claire magazine in its October issue. "I get to take long breaks and then work hard in a really concentrated way."

Garner wed Ben Affleck in June 2005. Their daughter, Violet, will be 2 on Dec. 1.

"She's pretty awesome. We're in that sweet spot before the 'terrible twos,'" the 35-year-old actress says. "We definitely wonder what it would be like to have another — hopefully, knock on wood, someday."

Garner nursed Violet during the filming of "The Kingdom," co-starring Jamie Foxx, which opens in theaters Friday. Garner says she found herself staggered by the heat on the Arizona set.

"I checked with a pediatrician, I checked with my gynecologist," she recalls, "and they said, 'Breast-feeding? You'll be fine. Just drink plenty of water.' But the rules when it's 138 degrees are different. ... It sent me to the hospital a couple of times."

"I guess I was getting heatstroke," she says. "All my electrolytes were going to the baby — I wasn't keeping any of the potassium in my body."

"I made it through, though," says Garner, who nursed Violet for 14 months. "I really didn't want to give up, and I didn't."

She debuted her postpartum figure at the 2006 Oscars wearing a beaded designer gown.

Such an outing isn't stress-free, Garner says.

"I usually feel like, 'No matter how many girdles you put me in, you will not be able to zip this.' They always say to you — as though it's something that should make you happy — `This is fresh from the runway.'

"But what I think is, 'That was made for some 14-year-old girl from Russia! It was not made to go on my body.'"