Shannon Miller has long been known as “America’s Most Decorated Gymnast,” but the nine-time world medalist and Olympic champion will soon have a new moniker: Mommy.

Miller and her husband of almost two years, John Falconetti, are expecting their first child this winter.

“We had talked about expanding our family as soon as the tour [of Gymnastics Superstars] finished and I didn’t have to be in a leotard,” a very happy Miller explains to Inside. “We were a little surprised it happened so quickly, but we are just so excited. Mostly, I’m really excited now that we can tell people. We waited the full 12 weeks to say anything, just to be safe.

“It was so hard to keep it quiet; especially because I had really, really bad morning sickness for six or seven weeks, at least. People kept wondering why I had the flu for so long,” she adds with a laugh. “It’s great to finally be able to share the news with everyone. Our families are just so excited and they were bursting to tell too.”

Falconetti, who owns a commercial printing company, and Miller, a columnist for Inside Gymnastics magazine, married August 25, 2007, after meeting at a Republican Party event in Falconetti’s native Florida. The couple resides in his hometown of Jacksonville, Fla. as do Falconetti’s parents. (Miller’s parents and brother remain in Miller’s Edmond, Okla. hometown. Sister Tessa, who has two children of her own, now lives in Minnesota.)

“For my husband’s parents it’s their first grandchild,” Miller reveals. “So they’re extra excited. And so are we, to have them close. You know, built-in babysitters.”

Miller, whose due date is November 5, will be the third member of her gold-medal-winning 1996 Olympic team, known as the Magnificent Seven, to have a child. (Amanda Borden has a daughter, two-year-old Kennedy and Dominique Moceanu gave birth to her second child, son Vincent, in March. Moceanu’s daughter, Carmen, was born on Christmas Day in 2007.)

The petite Miller says she couldn’t have kept her secret much longer even if she wanted to, as she’s already showing. “I can definitely tell,” she insists, adding with a laugh, “other people may think I just had a really large dinner.

“What’s really funny is that I’m currently working on two fitness books right now and I find out I’m pregnant right in the middle of them,” Miller says. “Right away, I called the photographer and said, ‘We have to shoot, like, tomorrow.’ One of the books is about abs and core strength. How am I supposed to explain why I’m not quite as fit as I normally am when I can’t say I’m eight weeks pregnant?”

With Miller’s gold medal history and Falconetti’s own athletic background (he played football and wrestled in high school and college), the inevitable first question is whether their child, boy or girl, is headed for the gym.

“You know, people have been asking me that long before I ever imagined I’d start a family,” Miller says. “And I think my answer is still the same: early on, boy or girl, I’d want to get them started in physical activity. Gymnastics has great opportunity in little mom and me classes to teach children coordination, flexibility and a little strength. Basically, just body awareness, and I think that’s good for any sport. After that, I’d want them to choose their own sport, not gymnastics for me, or football and wrestling for John. Just whatever they want to do.

“We keep joking that we’re both so athletic and sports have been so important to us, that we’ll probably have this total anti-athlete child,” Miller adds with a giggle. “But, seriously, we really just hope to keep our child happy and healthy. I think that’s what every parent wants. We want to set up a foundation so they have a lifelong love of fitness.”

A love that would dovetail nicely with Miller’s own post-Olympic mission, which has been the promotion of physical fitness in all ages, but primarily children.

“I’ve spent many, many years now really helping raise the focus on health and fitness in girls and women,” Miller explains. “Through that, I kept hearing these alarming statistics on childhood obesity and that’s when I decided to focus my [Shannon Miller] Foundation on this problem.”

A problem made even more poignant for Miller now that she has her own child on the way. “Your perspective changes when it’s your own child,” she admits. “I always wanted to be healthy and fit, but you don’t always get as many workouts in as you’d like, or always eat as healthy a you’d like. No one does. But now, everything you do affects your child. It becomes so much more important and critical to take care of yourself when you’re pregnant. And then to continue that, after pregnancy, to set a good example.”

And while Miller may move her focus once she becomes a mom—“You always tend to relate better to people who are going through the same thing as you are, so right now prenatal fitness, and body after baby, are big [topics of interest] for me,” she acknowledges—the public speaking and promotional dynamo has no plans to slow down.

“I love to work,” she laughs. “I retain my sanity by working. By having that me time when I can go to the gym—that’s healthy for me. And I think it’s healthy for my child for me to keep my sanity. Sanity is a plus. There will be times when I [might have to] say no to certain opportunities, based on how I feel at that point, but right now I don’t see myself slowing down very much.

“I won’t be doing any gymnastics tours, living on a bus for three months,” she adds with a laugh, “but other than that, most of my travel is one, two days at a time, maybe a week here and there. I think there are certainly way to handle that.”

Not that Miller sees herself spending much time apart from her firstborn.

“No nannies,” Miller says emphatically. “I think the child will be strapped to me. I’ve already become very protective. I think John and I will fight over who gets to take [care of] this little he or she.

As to whether it will be a he or she, Miller says she goes back and forth, dreaming about both a son and daughter, but can’t wait to discover which she’s having.

“We want to find out the sex of the child, absolutely,” she says. “We’re both planners. We’re both Type A. So, [things like] the nursery will be a couple months away, until we know if it’s a boy or girl.

“My mother already wants to go shop for everything, of course,” Miller concludes with a laugh. “I think she’s already got a plan through college. But we’re taking it one step at a time and just enjoying it; keeping it as stress free as possible [and] having a good sense of humor.  We know it’s going to go fast. We’re so excited, but, at the same time, totally terrified.”

Miller sounds like a mom already.