Shawn Johnson East and Husband Andrew East Welcome a Daughter: 'You Are Our Everything'
Shawn Johnson East is a mama!
The 27-year-old former Olympic gymnast and her football player husband Andrew East confirmed on Instagram Monday that they welcomed their first child, a baby girl.
“What up @theeastbaby,” East, 28, captioned a video of the new family of three, while Johnson East wrote alongside a black-and-white snapshot, “You are our everything. Welcome to the world baby girl.”
Johnson East first announced she was expecting in April (one year after revealing she’d suffered a miscarriage) with a sweet Instagram photoshoot.
The new mom captioned one photo of her husband cradling her baby bump with the jokey caption, “That’s not a bump… @theeastbaby has just REALLY been lovin’ the carbs lately ?????????♀???It’s a carb belly and you know what, I’m going to cradle it. @andrewdeast has embraced it.”
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our wolfpack grew by one @shawnjohnson @andrewdeast #family #theeastfamily
A post shared by The East Family (@thefamilyeast) on Nov 4, 2019 at 10:33am PST
what up @theeastbaby @shawnjohnson @thefamilyeast #family #theeastfamily
A post shared by Andrew East (@andrewdeast) on Nov 4, 2019 at 9:59am PST
sup @thefamilyeast #theeastfamily
A post shared by Baby East (@theeastbaby) on Nov 4, 2019 at 10:34am PST
RELATED: Pregnant Shawn Johnson East Will Be “Good” If Her Child Isn’t An Athlete Like Mom and Dad
As well as setting up an Instagram account for the baby, the couple shared regular updates with their social media followers, even posting videos on their YouTube channel in which they opened up about pregnancy complications.
At a 20-week checkup, their doctor informed Johnson East that her baby had underdeveloped and dilated kidneys, as well as a two-rather than three-vessel umbilical cord, which carries an increased risk of stillbirth and pre-term labor.
With both complications happening together, their doctor said there was a chance of their baby having Down syndrome. “It was scary having lost a baby already, two years ago,” Johnson East told PEOPLE.
She said in a follow-up video that in the days leading up to the genetic testing results, they would pray for their baby “literally every five minutes of the day” – and just six days after the appointment, the tests came back negative.
She explained that she was immensely relieved, but continuing to monitor the two-vessel umbilical cord with ultrasounds every three to four weeks.
In a video posted after her 20-week appointment, Johnson East said that the whole experience had given her some real perspective.
“Everyone’s always like, ‘Oh, are you having a boy or a girl? What do you want? Are you going to put them in gymnastics? Are you going to put them in football?’ And we had those thoughts in the beginning,” she said.
But after going through such a harrowing ordeal, Johnson East realized that the only thing that really mattered was having a “healthy” baby.
