The Super Sweet Reason Pregnant Shawn Johnson Isn't Learning the Sex of Her Baby

The way Shawn Johnson East sees it, she already has one of each. 

As in, she and husband Andrew East waited until 3-year-old daughter Drew's birth to learn her sex and decided not to wait with 2-year-old son Jett.

And as much as she enjoyed putting together a party and getting splattered with blue paint to discover she was expecting their son, "There was something so special with Drew about Andrew finding out first in delivery and being able to tell me," the Olympic gymnast recalled in an exclusive interview with E! News. "It's his little celebration moment. It was really, really special. And so we're like, 'Let's just do that one more time.'"

Though, to be clear, just one more time. 

While Shawn feels strongly at the moment that "our family is complete with three," retired football pro Andrew—one of five siblings—is more than ready to call an audible.

"I said, 'Well, I can tell you this, this will be my last pregnancy,'" she shared of capping the number of c-sections at three. "I'm up for helping babies around the world who need families. I think we can have that conversation later if that's something we want to talk about. But this will be our last pregnancy."

So while the 31-year-old is doing her best to enjoy the last round of little kicks and any reprieves from the crushing exhaustion and nausea, she's not testing out old wives' tales or putting too much stock into whether she's craving salt or sweets. (Though come July 27, she'll definitely be indulging at Dairy Queen for Miracle Treat Day, the franchise donating proceeds from each Blizzard sold to local children's hospitals through Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.) 

"I was convinced with Drew," she said of assuming her firstborn would be a boy. "Everybody told me that a mother's intuition knows, whatever your intuition says is usually true. And I was like, 'We're having a boy. It's a boy. I know for a fact. I can tell.' And then we had a girl and I was like, I give up. There's no chance I'm gonna be right."

For the record, however, big sis Drew is "convinced it's a girl," Shawn admitted. "She definitely has a preference, which is kind of scary. Because that means there's potential that she'll be upset. But it'll be fine."

Because no matter who Baby East turns out to be, they're in for a memorable first year that will include a trip to Paris for the 2024 Olympics. 

"I gave birth to Jett while Tokyo was going on, missed the winter," explained the athlete, who's been a regular at the Games since she earned a gold and three silver medals in Beijing back in 2008. "I am craving the Olympic atmosphere. So we will all be there. We will be a circus walking, but we will be there."

And Shawn is equal parts excited and cautious about visiting the old stomping grounds. 

"I think it is important that it's such a part of our life that they know it," she explained of letting her kids in on the fact that Mom is kind of a big deal. "My daughter can point to a leotard hanging on the wall, and she's like, 'Mommy did gymnastics and daddy did football.' But hopefully they don't learn for a very long time, that magnitude."

She and Andrew, a Vanderbilt football alum who spent four years bouncing around the NFL as a long snapper, are equally proud of their accomplishments on the mat and the gridiron. 

But...

"I have this weird fear that our accomplishments will set an unhealthy expectation on our children and I don't want that," Shawn explained. "I don't want the world to expect that from them. I don't want them to feel like we expect it from them. They should be able to play in high school soccer and be on the bench the whole time and we'll be so proud of them. Or go into piano or whatever. I don't even want to project that."

And so far you could argue she's doing a pretty good job. Though Drew has shown an interest in the sport ("She does a gymnastics camp that she loves, but it's like a padded playground," shares Shawn), she still turns to Dad for tips. 

"I think it's the funniest thing in the entire world," admitted Shawn. "Like she wanted to learn a handstand. And I was like, 'Let me show you.' And she's like, 'No, no, Mama. Daddy.' And I was like, all righty."

But perhaps the toddler is just being overly cautious. 

"Every day she's like, 'Mommy, your belly's growing. Does that mean the baby's growing? Is the baby happy?'" Shawn revealed of Drew's empathetic nature. "She's worried about, like, pushing on my belly too hard."

And Drew is already volunteering for big sister duties ahead of her sibling's late 2023 arrival. "She talks about how the baby's going to sleep in her room and she's going to take care of the baby," said Shawn. "And I think, 'This is great.'"