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.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
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 risk 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.
RELATED: Pregnant Shawn Johnson East on Why She Celebrated After Getting Her Genetic Test Results Back
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.
Source: Read Full Article