I implemented the 555 monostable circuit shown here, using a Intersil ICM7555 SMD CMOS chip:

It works as intended, save for a small inconvenience. When the circuit is first powered up, the output is turned on for the predetermined time interval, as if the pushbutton was pressed.
I believe the problem is that the voltage on Threshold pin takes some time to rise due to the pullup resistor (R2). I fed 12 Volts directly to the Threshlod pin, bypassing the pullup and the problem went away.
One possible solution I came up with, is to keep the Reset pin low for a while during startup, by connecting a resistor and capacitor in this fashion:

Will this work?