Jayma Mays Was 'So Sleep Deprived' After Going Back to Work Two Weeks Postpartum: I Was 'Mentally Exhausted'

Jayma Mays is a working mama.

The Glee alum recently welcomed her first child — son Jude, 5 months — with husband Adam Campbell. And just two weeks after she gave birth, she started filming for her new crime-documentary spoof show Trial & Error.

“I thought, yeah, you have a baby and then you just go to work. I had no idea,” Mays, 37, told PEOPLE Wednesday at the Television Critics Association conference in Pasadena, California.

She adds, “Thankfully, they were all incredibly supportive in allowing me to pump and do all those things I wanted to do as a mom.”

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Though Mays had a wonderful support system surrounding her at work, she admits there was a bit of a new-mom haze going on during her filming days.

“I was sitting in the courtroom, and it was a long day,” she recalls of an experience during her first month postpartum. “Some of the scenes were quite long. I remember looking up and I was like, ‘Did I have a baby?’ I was hallucinating.”

“I was so sleep-deprived, and just so mentally exhausted. I was like, ‘I think I had a baby.’ It was nuts. The first month for me was absolutely nuts. I’m just now coming through it.”

Mays shares that she and husband of nine years Campbell, 36, were working at the same time, but luckily they had family to help them adjust to the new lifestyle.

“Thankfully family came out because we never were parents before,” she says. “We felt if our parents could come and help, that was what we needed. So our parents, both sets, graciously came out and stayed with us for about six to eight weeks to get us on our feet before we had extra help come in. But it was nuts.”

Mays explains that filming for Trial & Error wrapped just before the holiday season, and the new mom is getting into more of a routine with her son.

“I’ve had about three or four weeks to be Mom, which has been really great, and I’m starting to get some sleep,” she says. “He’s starting to sleep in the night, and that’s helping a lot too. But I’m just now coming through it. I’m still a little shell-shocked.”

And what’s the secret to Mays’ post-baby body? “It’s all stress and coffee. That literally will bring the pounds right off,” she jokes.

Trial & Error — also starring John Lithgow and Nicholas D’Agosto — premieres Tuesday, March 7, at 9:30 p.m. EST/8:30 p.m. CST on NBC.

• With reporting by SCOTT HUVER