Former ‘DWTS’ Champ Shawn Johnson East Announces Pregnancy With Second Child
Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson East had plenty to celebrate over the holidays. Keeping her followers posted on her 1-year-old daughter Drew’s milestones via social media, the former Dancing With the Stars champ and her husband Andrew East just announced that their daughter will soon have a sibling.
‘DWTS’ champ had hinted that she was ready for a second child
According to Shape, Johnson East experienced a 22-hour labor with Drew, resulting in a C-section. After the physical demands of her first child’s delivery, Johnson East’s doctor recommended they hold off on trying for another baby for at least a year. Speaking to Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner in October 2020 for their Hot Marriage Cool Parents podcast, the former Olympian shared her thoughts on giving Drew a sibling.
“I mentally don’t want to say, ‘We’re trying,'” Johnson East explained. “I don’t want to put myself in the position where we get a year down the road and it’s like, ‘Oh, we’ve been trying for a year and it hasn’t happened.'”
Once the doctor gave the couple the green light for another child, Johnson East assumed it may take some time to conceive.
“It took us a while to get pregnant the first time,” she said in her YouTube video. “So I didn’t know how long it was going to take. I didn’t know if it would be harder to get pregnant this time.”
A positive pregnancy test for the Easts
Johnson East didn’t waste any time getting answers, and took a test in the hopes of a positive result.
“I think it was five days after we tried, I was like, ‘Oh, I should get a pregnancy test,’ which doesn’t make any sense,” she shared. “You can’t take a pregnancy test that quick.”
Much to her surprise, Johnson East got a the news she wanted. She started calculating how far along she was in her pregnancy and discovered she was almost through her first trimester.
“That night, I was sitting on the couch, basking in this [and thinking], ‘Holy crap, that was fast,’” she said in the video. “Nothing was adding up… then I was like, ‘Holy crap, I’ve been pregnant for two months.’”
Shawn Johnson East posts news on social media
On Jan. 15, Johnson East shared her news in an Instagram post. Putting up a photo of her husband kissing her, Johnson East is proudly showing off her baby bump in the picture along with the caption, “Here we go again.”
Johnson East previously spoke of moving forward with parenting, even while it’s common to not feel fully prepared.
“I don’t feel like you’re ever ready to have a kid,” the former DWTS star said on the Miraculous Mamas podcast before Drew’s birth in October 2019. “Even now, like I’m ready to, I’m getting ready to pop a kid out here any day. I don’t feel ready.”
She added, “I don’t feel like you’re ever totally ready ‘cause you don’t feel like you’re, you know, financially there, or [that] you have the home or you have the stability. There’s always some reason – it’s just a daunting task to take on.”
Now with over a year of parenting under their belts, Johnson East and her husband are thrilled to be adding to their family.
