“Cougar Town” actress Busy Philipps is an aptly named working mother, juggling a career on a hit ABC comedy series with raising daughter Birdie, 2, with her husband, screenwriter Marc Silverstein. Philipps is giving those with a Working Mother magazine subscription a glimpse into pregnancy and weight gain in Hollywood, and the universal language of all mothers: mommy guilt.

Philipps confides to the parenting magazine that she gained some 75 pounds while pregnant–a fact that cost her an acting job. She says that while it was “disheartening” to lose the gig, “I ended up getting to relax during most of my pregnancy…. In retrospect, I’m glad I wasn’t working. I think it all worked out for the best.”

The 31-year-old new mom, like most of us moms, had a difficult time shedding the baby weight. “I breastfed for 14 months,” Philipps says. “The first 20 or so pounds came off fairly easily, and then it was a battle. I’d hike carrying Birdie in a pack. I had a mother’s helper two or three days a week so I could go to the gym or walk. I did lose a job shortly after Birdie was born. It took me a year and half to lose all the weight. It was hard, but thank God for Spanx.” I’ll second the notion!

When Philipps finally did get back to work, she faced the guilt to which all working mothers are privy. “Last year was easier than this year,” she tells Working Mother magazine. “Now that’s she’s 2, Birdie’s really hyper aware of when I’m around and when I’m not, so it’s tough.” Preach it!

Of handling the mommy guilt “with varying degrees of difficulty,” the upbeat mom confesses, “I feel a lot of guilt…. My husband really talks me down off the ledge when I feel guilty. But I think it’s important for my daughter to know that I get so much out of my job as an actor and that it fulfills a creative need in me.”

At the end of the day, though, Philipps makes sure Birdie knows her mom has “two amazing jobs. The most important is being her mom.”