Olympian Shawn Johnson expecting second child with husband, Andrew East
Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson will soon be welcoming another baby! The “Dancing with the Stars” alum, 28, has just announced that she is expecting a second baby with husband, Andrew East. She revealed the special news on her Instagram page on Friday.
Johnson East posted a picture of herself and her husband. In the image, she’s laying a hand on her baby bump and the pic is captioned “Here we go again! #babyeast.”
The Olympian also shared a special video on her YouTube channel discussing how they found out the big news. Her husband Andrew reveals that his wife was “emotionally variable” in a way that brought back memories of Johnson’s first pregnancy. So when they discovered she was pregnant, some of her emotional roller-coasters made more sense to him.
Watch the video below:
They also revealed that had been wanting another baby for a while (Johnson delivered their baby girl in Drew Hazel in November 2019), but the doctor said they needed to wait at least a year due to Johnson delivering via cesarian section.
Here’s the Twitter announcement of their first child’s birth:
Drew Hazel East
8lbs 8 oz
20.5 inches long
10/29/19Named after the most incredible person I know… her daddy. @AndrewDEast pic.twitter.com/xzSi7WDNwr
— Shawn Johnson East (@ShawnJohnson) November 8, 2019
Prior to welcoming Drew Hazel into the world, Johnson suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage.
In a 2019 episode of the podcast Hot Marriage. Cool Parents, Johnson revealed how she struggled with guilt following the loss of her baby.
“I felt so sad and guilty that I had done something wrong to lose this child,” Johnson said in the podcast (as quoted by People), even though her doctor immediately tried to reassure her. “I remember that just bringing me to tears because I was like, ‘How can you say that? ‘Cause I must’ve done something wrong.”
Hence, welcoming a second baby to their family is extra-special, especially because it took husband Andrew a while to be ready to consider the journey again.
“As soon as I miscarried I was like ‘I want to try again. I want to still be pregnant, I want to do this.’ And my husband was like ‘I think we need to take a break. I think we need to heal from this and process everything,'” she said on the podcast Miraculous Mamas (via Motherly). “That causes tension between a marriage.”
But now the two are on the same page and eager to grow their family. Here are some images of the unit together from Johnson’s Twitter page, posted in November 2020 as they celebrated the veterans in their extended family:
Taking some time today to appreciate all of those who have served and are currently serving. Both of @andrewdeast’s and I’s grandpa’s served, so today is extra special for us. Join us and @usaa today in the #HonorThroughAction V challenge! #USAAPartner pic.twitter.com/YDYBYtshBk
— Shawn Johnson East (@ShawnJohnson) November 11, 2020
And Johnson will have lots of love and pampering from her family and friends — former Bachelorette Ali Manno (Fedotowsky) reached out to share her congrats on Johnson’s Instagram post, and offered to bring by fried pickles and ice cream anytime the Olympic gold medalist desires. Now that’s friendship!