Blood work strikes again!

If you don't recall my last exciting experience doing blood work around my 8 week mark, feel free to read here.

It's mandatory that every pregnant woman takes a glucose blood test between 24-28 weeks. One month ago during my last appointment, they gave me a sheet of instructions on what to expect. They admitted to me that the glucose drink was nasty. Since I'd be fasting for three hours, they told me to bring something to eat right after.

I dreaded getting my blood drawn starting in the beginning of October. Whenever I looked at the monthly calendar, it seemed to laugh at me due to previously being scarred from last time.

I told my family about the test and had them pray for me since I was really anxious to get it all over with!

My test was at exactly at 3:10 p.m., but I had to finish my sugary orange concoction drink by 2:10. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything after that. Additionally, I wasn't allowed to eat two hours before 2:10. So I couldn't eat after 12:10 p.m. (but I could drink water). I was nervous about finishing the whole drink within the allotted 5 minutes, so I probably wasn't well hydrated before then.

I cleaned my apartment to distract myself before I came to part one of this distasteful event. I prepare myself for the worst, and was pleasantly surprised by the taste! It tasted like orange soda to me, and I like my sugary beverages! One part down, one to go!

After I check in with the receptionist, I listened to a cute sappy love song that Spencer played for me recently on repeat. (Then by Brad Paisley if anyone is interested.) The previous nurse didn't talk to me last time so I needed a distraction just in case.

I get called in and warned the nurse I passed out last time, but it was most likely due to being nauseous in the first trimester. But since I felt fine, we weren't too concerned. I got to tell her about the song I was listening to and voila! It was over!

I triumphantly go back to the waiting room to later hear my name being called to see my OB. I text everyone to tell them that I survived! Pleased with myself, I scroll the interwebs while eating my protein bar. Then suddenly, I started to feel nauseous and the granola bar didn't seem so appetizing anymore...

(in my head) 

"Okay Emily, you got this. Just take deep breaths, nice and slow..." 


"All right, this isn't working as well as I thought. Where's the nearest drinking fountain? Or the bathroom in case I throw up?! I'm probably dehydrated and that can cause nausea... it's happened before."

At this point, my eyesight was getting blurry with blue sparkles, while the room was moving.

"I remember near the front desk there were some mini water bottles. I could ask one of the receptionists if I could have one since I'm feeling light-headed..."

I stare at the floor and brace myself to walk since my balance was horrendous. I stagger over to one of them and say something along the lines of, "Hey, can I have one of those water bottles? I feel light-headed since I just gave blood."

After they say yes, I grab a water bottle while hoping it's not hard to open since I always need Spencer to open those for me. I almost miss the chair completely while sitting down. I successfully open the bottle and pray for the best as I re-hydrate.

I finished the whole bottle, I continued with my deep breathing and started to eat my fruit snacks. A short while after a few more deep breaths, a nurse called me back and immediately started to ask how I felt and if I needed to lay down.

I was feeling much better by then without any blue sparkles in my vision. I explained what happened the last time I gave blood. And no, they didn't need to prescribe me anti-nausea medication because I already have it! She made sure I had some snacks and let me go back to my seat to wait for my turn after she knew I was okay.

I suppose I only partially survived. Can't wait to see what labor is like if I can't handle losing a little bit of blood!

It takes us HOW long to get to Tonga?

Spencer and I left our apartment Tuesday, September 3rd at 4:30 p.m to make our very long journey to Tonga. We landed in Tonga on Thursday, September 5th around 3:55 p.m. in Tonga. (Tonga is 19 hours ahead of us.) Which made this entire experience 28.5 hours long... not including the driving around we did for dinner after we landed. PHEW.

Since I knew it was going to be a long flight and I'm trying to limit my dairy intake, I packed a LOT of snacks. Some of them aren't even pictured here and I brought quadruples of snacks for our trip back.

Filled to the brim!

My purse couldn't even fit them all in, and Spencer's backpack had to hold some of them.

Spencer all cute and happy on our way during our first leg of the flight. Salt Lake City to Los Angeles!

We got to LAX and it was a whirlwind trying to figure out how to get to our new terminal. I thought it was the coolest thing when we had to slowly walk two by two past a police dog sniffing for drugs. Although, I was slightly nervous that he was going to smell my snacks and I'd get slammed to the ground when he alerted his handler...

We finally got to our gate and were very happy that we could relax for a little while before our 11 hour flight to Fiji. 

Our flight was supposed to take off at 11 p.m., but was delayed until 12:45 a.m.! We got word from the pilot that many travelers checked overweight and over sized cargo. This caused imbalance on the plane and the cargo handlers had to rearrange all of the luggage and cargo to stabilize the plane. A good amount of the passengers laughed since they knew they were part of the reason why the plane was delayed. 

Chicken with rice and peas, crackers with cheese, and a Twix.

We got chicken with rice for our 'dinner' which felt like it was at 3 a.m. My nose knew it was chicken and rice and I told Spencer that as the people ahead of us got their food. I became very grateful for my snacks, as I didn't care for the seasoning or spiciness of the chicken. Plus, the amount of dairy that was in the meal wasn't ideal. Spencer ended up eating most of my food. It's my fault that I didn't notify Fiji Airways about my dietary restriction, but I know to notify them next time! 

Spencer slept quite a bit on the flight there, I was quite jealous. I watched Toy Story instead. I realized that there are a LOT more jokes in Toy Story that I didn't understand as a child. I was somewhat shocked at some of them. This is a kid's movie?!

I struggled to find a comfy position to sleep, which resulted in me sleeping for about 90 minutes total on our flight. Darn those hip and back aches while being pregnant! I couldn't wait to get off this plane!

A couple of the funny happenings while I was awake:

• A man went into one of the bathrooms and was fighting to get the door open. He quickly left and sat back down in his seat. Ten minutes later, a man walked out of the same bathroom. I guess he didn't remember to lock the door and got barged in on! I felt bad for quietly laughing to myself.
• While looking for one of my shoes on the floor to walk the aisles, I accidentally grabbed the mans foot behind me. I retreated quickly and pretended it never happened. I learned later on that 'he' was a 'she', since I saw her fancy-schmancy purse. Whoops, sorry lady!

We had breakfast, and it was about as good as 'dinner'.  I smelled blueberry muffins and my sniffer was right once again!

Wet scrambled eggs, mushy hash browns, pitiful fruit, blueberry muffin, and orange juice. I wish that red thing was ketchup. 

Once the flight was over, I was SO excited to be done sitting on a plane!

This couldn't be more accurate.

Going through customs in Fiji was such a long process, but we had a 7ish hour layover and wanted to say we had a little mini adventure there!

We got a taxi ride to the wharf to have breakfast at the port. 

I took a lot of pictures while we were speeding along on the left side of the road on our way there. That took me some getting used to!

Can you spot the gravestones?!?!

We went to Lulu's and I got French toast with bacon (and Spencer asked them to put my bacon on the grill longer since apparently the South Pacific doesn't like crispy bacon). He got an omelet with toast.

It was a pretty cool place.

After breakfast we walked around and I loved seeing the ocean and the palm trees. I got some earrings as a souvenir to say we went to Fiji.

Then we got picked us up and our taxi driver drove us back to the airport.

I'm uneducated and didn't know Fiji had mountains.

We got back to the airport and was very early for our flight. 

I thought it was cool the airport had a prayer room.

The older plane we got on to fly to Tonga was so much more comfortable than the last Fiji Airways plane. Spencer and I did not understand this. I didn't fall asleep, but I was a lot more relaxed.

The flight to Tonga was pretty uneventful (thankfully). But we learned when we got to Tonga that Spencer had to report to customs that he brought his pocket knife to Tonga. We weren't sure if they were going to confiscate it or not, as the two workers looked at each other and then back at the knife. But our knife was spared and became an important item of our trip.

Our Airbnb host, Isi picked us up from the airport and told us that he didn't have any other plans for this evening. He offered to drive us downtown so we could find someplace to eat and show us around. I was in awe just staring at everything and absorbing it all. In the end, we went to a sub place that Spencer remembered eating at when he was a missionary.

Waiting for our subs.

This is translated to "Blessing Store."

I'm obsessed with the skies in Tonga. LOOK AT HOW BEAUTIFUL THEY ARE.

This university makes me smile. Tongans love Jesus!

Then we got to where we were staying and ate our subs. If anyone is planning on going to Tonga, we recommend The Dayspring Lodge. :)

And this was just the beginning  of a whirlwind of adventure....