Click below for the baby-related highlights — including marriage to Ben Affleck, nursing, Violet, and more — and photos from the shoot (which took place during the joint Affleck-Damon family vacation in Hawaii earlier this summer).

On pregnancy weight: I wasn’t a woman who stayed thin like I thought Iwould. I definitely gave myself the freedom to eat what I wanted. Ithought, ‘Oh, it’s going to drop away; I’ll have another cookie.’ Nexttime around I won’t go quite that hog wild. I did not have a huge baby[Violet was 6 lbs, 10 oz] and I was ginormous!

On being able to say no: It got a lot easier once I had a kid.

More on heat and nursing: Jennifer expounds on previous statements she made about filming The Kingdom in Arizona in summer ’06.

[The heat] made people crazy. It was like another character inthe movie. Your whole body is saying, ‘Go inside. Find somewherecooler.’ And there you are, just standing there, baking. The crew hadit worse than we did.

I checked with a pediatrician, I checked with my gynecologist, and they said, ‘Breastfeeding? You’ll be fine. Just drinkplenty of water.’ But the rules when it’s 138 degrees are different. Well, it sent me to the hospital a couple of times. I guess I was getting heatstroke. All my electrolytes weregoing to the baby — I wasn’t keeping any of the potassium in my body. Iwould never pass out or anything, but I just got so dizzy that Ithought, ‘I can’t pick up my daughter when I get back to the hotel.’ It happened twice. It was scary.

I made it through, though. I really didn’t want to give [nursing] up, and Ididn’t.

All in all, shenursed Violet for 14 months — pumping in the car on the way to the Oscars, and in airplane bathrooms.

I really loved [breastfeeding]. It gave me peace and a sense of purpose.

On Violet, now 21 months: She’s pretty awesome. We’re in that sweet spot before the terribletwos. She sleeps till 7! Yeah, we lucked out. Supposedly [when] youhave one that’s this easy and great, you’re screwed the next time around.

Jennifer says she is with Violet in the morning ‘four out of five workingdays.’

Then I put her down for her nap, I run out and have a meeting, Irun back. Sometimes I get home before she’s even woken up.

On the paparazzi: [The paparazzi] justnips away at anything you’re doing, the small pleasures. Iwould give just about anything to make it go away, especially for mydaughter. I feel like she has a right to her privacy, and it’s kind ofencroached on.

The family is still considering a possible move away from LA — Jennifer is from West Virginia, while Ben hails from Boston.

I can’t live in West Virginia and do what I do — I’m not going to get a lot of jobs there. We’re far from Ben’s family as well. It bums us out. We haven’t figured it out yet.

On marriage to Ben: I don’t know what makes it work. Butit does. One thing that makes it work is that we’re both pretty nice.He’s not someone who’s ever going to blow up on anyone. What I mean is,if he’s ever angry with me, he doesn’t act out on it in a weird way oryell at me. And I am the same. So we handle conflict in a very lovingand adult way.

On having more children: We definitely wonder what it would be like to have another — hopefully, knock on wood, someday. [raps table] My job is great to have as a mom. I get to take breaks and then work in a really concentrated way. During that concentrated time, it sucks, but whatever.

On Ben quitting smoking: Three weeks before we had Violet, he went to a hypnotist and has not smoked since! I so admire him, because it was so painful. But he is sick so much less often, and I don’t lose him every 15 minutes while he wanders around outside. He smells great. It’s a huge gift that he gave me — and our daughter as well. I probably annoy him, I celebrate it so much.

On her possible future talk show: I feel like women, and especially mothers, are disenfranchised from our families; we don’t have the same support group around us that we did a generation ago. All my girlfriends and my sisters were having these same issues, and I felt like, ‘Why isn’t this being addressed?’ There are tons of talk shows, yet there’s nothing that’s specifically for them. But I’ve never gotten the balls to go out and do it.

Source: Marie Claire, October issue, p. 86-91