Swimming with Humpback Whales: The Good and the Bad

Monday morning was pretty busy for us since we had to check out at Sandy Beach as we were staying at their sister resort Matafonua for one day next. We also had to eat breakfast and be ready to go out to the boat by 8:30. (We had been sleeping in a lot so this was especially difficult for lil ol' pregnant me.)

Pancakes! While I've been a waffle girl, I've been wanting pancakes this pregnancy.

We get on the boat and I put my wet suit on. Spencer didn't wear his since he thought the water was warm enough. It was a smaller group compared to the rest of the boats that also went out. We were split in Group A or B. One of our instructors told us that each time a group went out, one of the people could do a double and stay out another turn. We would rotate who did a double to make it fair.

The boat on the right is the kind of boat we were on.

Spencer was the designated picture taker. I think he did a fabulous job! My snorkeling mask was a problem because no matter how tight I made it, the part around the eyes would flood and I got sunscreen AND salt water in my eyes. It was not a grand ol' time.

Google photos made these first two. Baby whales love to spin!

The first time we went out there was a mama whale and a baby whale. Whales go to Tonga to give birth between July and October, and we just happened to go in the middle of whale season in September. Perf! 

Baby whales go up for air more frequently than the mama whales, but Spencer got to see a mama whale go up to the surface and see how HUGE she actually was (I didn't get that luxury since we ended up being in the opposite group as I gave him my double.) It was tiring.

We would only stay with a whale for about 90 minutes to make sure we weren't bothering them. After 90 minutes we would find another whale and park our boat near them. If they didn't seem to be bothered after five minutes or so, we would get out of the boat and swim toward them. Most of the time they didn't mind us gawking at them, but other times they would swim away and we'd try to swim after them. Either we'd catch up to them and have the 90 minute session, or we'd find another whale.

WHALES SWIM SO FAST. My pregnant body couldn't keep up! I didn't realize how tiring swimming with whales would actually be!  The instructor came out with us each time, and she noticed I was trailing behind after one whale was swimming away from us. She offered me to grab her 'rescue tube' while she swam for me. (I'm grateful she mentioned that anyone could do this if they were tired, so I didn't feel too bad. But I'm pretty sure I was the only one who had to latch on.)

Spencer said he felt the shock wave of the tail moving.

We found another mama and baby whale, I love these pictures (below) as the baby wants to swim so close to mama and be protected. We could hear them make noises too.

Both going up for air.

Another set of pictures of a whale:

Baby whale:

Videos (may be a little shaky):

At the very end of our whale swimming trip, I finally decided that I had enough energy to stay and do a double because I was already out in the water. I was SO glad that I did. It was one of the coolest experiences of the trip! The baby whales are more likely to get close to you than the mama whales. They like to play and show off. As a baby whale came up for air, (we'll just call her 'she') she got really close to all of us. We're supposed to maintain a distance of 5 meters away, but I'm pretty sure I was within 10 feet of her. I felt like I was in the prime spot since she was just staring at me with one of her eyes. It was crazy that she was acknowledging that I (and the rest of us) were there. What an ending!

Other pictures:

Such a cool picture of a mama whale!

We were getting off the boat around 4 p.m., and while we were getting back to shore is when I started to realize that Spencer was getting burned... and so did I. We didn't think too much about it since we had other plans for the rest of the day. After we checked into Motafonua, we tried to get bikes to get to one of Spencer's areas. Unfortunately, the front desk they said we couldn't because they don't check out bikes after 5 p.m. Instead of trying to find members to make and have dinner with, we had BBQ dinner. Around this time we really didn't think our burns were going to get super bad, but they did!

After dinner, we spent the rest of the evening tending our burns. Spencer's entire back and shoulders was super red (and other places developed later on) and my face, feet, and hands were burned. One of the reasons I got burned was because I didn't want to put more sunscreen on my face while my snorkel wasn't working. It would have gotten into my eyes and continued to burn. Apparently we didn't stay in the shade long enough! The spirit prompted me to pack a trial sized container of aloe vera, so we quickly got to work with putting it on.

This was only the beginning of the bad burns....

I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn't fall back asleep for about two hours. I ended up crying and woke up Spencer. He gave me a blessing for my headache, pains, and my sunburn. I did some research on my phone and found out a cold towel on a burn would help. I ended up getting one of Spencer's shirts wet and laid it on his back. I tried doing the same thing for my face but it wasn't very successful. But thanks to his blessing I ended up falling asleep a little bit quicker than I expected. Didn't sleep super great but it was better than nothing.

...Am I going into early labor?

Yesterday was just an average Tuesday. I'm scheduled to go see my OB every two weeks for a check up to see how everything is going. It's usually very boring, as I usually wait for the doctor than the check-up itself. But not today!

Baby Hoffman has been moving a TON the past week or two. I've been feeling him stretch out his legs against my sides and he'll leave his feet there. After he moves, that same spot he was stretching out aches and it hurts to the touch. A day earlier last week, I couldn't get him to fall asleep until after 3 a.m., which meant I didn't get to sleep until after 3 a.m. Something tells me I'm going to have my hands full after giving birth...

As usual, my doctor started to measure Baby Hoffman's heart rate. But instead of moving on and telling me he sounds great, an awkward silence fills the room. 

"When a baby has a high heart rate it's not always a cause for concern, but I need to get another doppler ultrasound in order to get his exact heart rate. I'll be right back." 

She comes back quickly and continues to measure the heart rate. Then she explained to me that his heart rate is around 180-190, but has gotten as high as 200. My doctor told me that a baby can't handle that heart rate for a long period of time, and that he might have a medical condition. She left the room to call a high risk doctor to fit me in to get an ultrasound to see what was going on with his heart.

Now this is when I stared to panic.

"A baby can't handle a high heart rate? Is he distressed?"

"The way she worded it sounded like he's going to have heart failure and die if his heart rate continues this way."

"Spencer texted me before the heart monitoring what's the address to the hospital. Did he get a spiritual prompting that something is wrong and he's going to race over here because I'm going into early labor?"

"Well I guess he couldn't complain about having a birthday close to Christmas, he'll be born near Thanksgiving instead!"

"I don't have ANYTHING ready when it comes to giving birth!"

#uneducatedfirsttimeMom

My doctor came back and told me they can't fit me in to get an ultrasound. Instead, I'm going to get hooked up to a monitor to see if Baby Hoffman's heart rate goes down within the next 10-15 minutes. I also may need to come back next week instead of two weeks.

The nurse took me to a very comfy chair in a private room and strapped me in, so to speak. I felt a little bit better when I heard her say, "Now he's cooperating."

They leave me be and the monitoring continues. A long piece of paper is coming out of the screen that reminds me of a lie detector test. But then, the beeping starts.

Beeping is never good at a hospital. I strained my neck to see his heart rate going back up to over 170. (I googled that the average heart rate is between 120-160.) It continued to beep while I tried to ignore it while writing in my journal as a distraction. 

Soon, another nurse came in to check on me and admitted that it's better to have a high heart rate instead of a low one. She looked at the paper and left. The beeping stopped and continued for 10 more minutes. 

My doctor came in and observed the paper. She put her hand on her heart, while relieved, "It looks a lot better than I expected. It's going to be fine. He's just a really hyper baby! That's one thing we've learned about him today." She asked if we could continue the monitoring and I agreed. I wanted as much data as possible to make sure everything was okay. I later found out that I was monitored for almost 40 minutes instead of 10-15!

I heard the door open and close a lot throughout the monitoring, but often no one came in. I saw the heart rate get up to 181 once, but I was free to go when I was told he was more in the safe zone than not. I don't have to come in next week after all. As I gathered my things, I overheard a nurse outside talking about me, "I kept going into the room because all of the beeping, but it would stop right as I walked in!"

Today, I am grateful that we know (so far) that Baby Hoffman doesn't have a heart condition. I am also grateful that I didn't have to go into emergency labor (which probably wasn't even a possibility in my doctors' eyes.) #uneducatedfirsttimeMom

Tonga Part Two: Small Airplane, Roasted Pig, Getting Locked In

Friday

The first day in Tonga we woke up to roosters at 6:30 a.m. ...This was a regular occurrence. We managed to get back to sleep. Our AirBnb host, Isi made us breakfast (one of the reasons why we chose this place: it also was a good price, had hot(ish) water.) This is when I quickly learned that Tongan food doesn't taste the same. There was toast, boiled eggs, watermelon, papaya, pineapple, hot cocoa (made out of Nesquik), and small bananas (also known as lady fingers even though they're short and fat). The peanut butter toast tasted different because there wasn't as much sugar in the peanut butter as I was used to. Sooo I gave it to Spencer and stuck to buttered toast. 

Since we were only going to be in Tongatapu until Saturday, we didn't get a rental car. We started to walk down one street to jog Spencer's memory and found a member who Spencer remembered. She told us where the stake president lived nearby. Since Latu is the stake president, he could tell Spencer who moved and who was still in Tongatapu.

They let us in, and this is where I got to see Spencer's Tongan shine. I took half a semester of Tongan over a year ago, which didn't help much. I got a few words but that's about it (I understood more as the trip progressed). Spencer caught up with them and asked about multiple people and how they were doing (while I enjoyed sitting on the couch as it was humid).

Latu's wife, Fono drove us around as she was picking up her kids at the Liahona school. It was fun to see the temple and more of Tonga. This is when I learned that seat belts are not a thing in Tonga.

Yes, yes that is a little boy in the front seat!

The school was under construction.

A statue that was at the school.

Across the street from the temple is the mission office. We liked this sign. :)

PHOTO DUMP. (Not necessarily all from this day, but I was constantly taking pictures as I was in cars.)

Fono drove us around a bit and we met up with Simima. She's a devote Methodist while a lot of her family are members of the church.  She updated him on her family and took a picture with him.

Later on in the evening, we had dinner with Fono and Latu. I love the bananas in Tonga as they're so much sweeter (I miss them very much). They also made us a chicken soup dish with corn, peas, and green beans. For once I actually liked green beans! I was curious on how Fono seasoned the dish, but apparently it was just paprika and black pepper. So... that was embarrassing. But the color of the broth was NOT the color of paprika and black pepper.

Saturday

We woke up and found out that the power was off. We originally thought our fan broke (a must for sleeping in Tonga) but thankfully it was only the power. After going back to sleep and eating breakfast, we packed up for our flight to Ha'apai!

Fono took us to the airport and saw one of her friends, Lupe. After we checked in, we started talking to her and became immediate friends. (This is the epitome of Tongan hospitality.) Lupe has 11 kids, and some of them live in Utah. It was fun seeing pictures of them and hearing her stories. We talked (some in English and some in Tongan) up until we had to get ready to get on the plane.

Lupe offered to help us get food/linner after we arrived in Ha'apai and to take us wherever we needed to go. She also invited us to Sunday dinner at her son's place where they would roast a whole pig! Spencer was pretty excited about that, and I was too.

We got outside and I thought this was our airplane:

But nope, that's too big.

I don't think I've ever been in such a small airplane. We ended up sitting in the first row- 1B and 1C. I was 1C so I got the window seat, which was as close to the propeller as possible. It was not a good trip.

Pre- take off.

I almost forgot my ear plugs as we checked out of our Airbnb, so I shoved my ear plugs in my purse instead of my suitcase. Those ear plugs happened to be my saving grace! The propeller vibrations were so loud, it was hurting my ears. I put the ear plugs in and made it more manageable, but still unpleasant. The vibrating was rattling my stomach and Baby Hoffman was freaking out wondering what the heck was going on. I was also smelling the planes fumes and other unsavory smells as my nausea got worse. No one was talking on the plane because you couldn't hear anyone.

I felt very sick and twenty minutes on the plane felt like an hour. I communicated with Spencer through typing on my phone. The last fifteen minutes Spencer took my seat, so I was in the middle of the plane right behind the pilots.

Spencer took this photo after we switched seats.

I was grateful there wasn't much turbulence since anything would have tipped me over the edge. As we landed, I knew I was going to throw up (and I did). I'll spare the details for the faint of heart.

So... this next part is a funny story...

Once we got off the plane, I went to the bathroom ... and I ended up getting locked into a bathroom stall. I kept twisting and turning the lock both ways, but the lock was broken and wouldn't budge. I inspected the stall and saw that the stall wall was way too low for me to shimmy underneath. I may be skinny, but not THAT skinny.

Stall from the outside

I tried to fix the lock again and no luck. I decided that I was going to need to jump over the wall so I could be released from this awful prison. At least the bathroom didn't smell bad! I put my purse on a "T section" of the wall up top and started my ascent.

Yup, that's where I put my purse.

I tested the toilet to see if it would hold my weight and it worked. I then checked to see if the toilet paper holder was sturdy enough as the wall was way too tall for me to jump over without the holders help. I was very grateful that I'm small and wasn't super pregnant yet! I contemplated taking a picture halfway between the two stalls, but decided against it. Just in case someone was going to come into the bathroom and see me scale the wall while taking a picture. I managed to get my foot onto the other toilet paper holder in the adjacent stall and stepped down onto the toilet. Didn't even want to think about the last time someone had cleaned those stalls.

The fact that I was feeling really sick and I went through that just makes me laugh now. Who would have thought I would have locked myself into a bathroom stall in Ha'apai?!

Soon after, Lupe asked how the flight went and I admitted to them that I threw up. Lupe gave me a roll from her bag and her Mom gave me some Sprite. They were so sweet and were trying to make sure I was feeling better. Aren't Tongan's great?! They took us to get some fried chicken, but honestly I had no appetite. The Sprite and a roll was enough.

We got dropped off at Kasimi and Serena's house. Kasimi was Spencer's ward mission leader when he was serving in Koulo. He remembered Spencer and was excited to see him. I was pretty tired as I didn't get great sleep, so they offered me to sleep on their bed while Spencer and Kasimi went  around the neighborhood to catch up with people. How I slept with pigs and dogs fighting, plus kids making a ton of noise, and Serena cleaning (as quietly as she could), I don't even know.

Serena and Kasimi. We spent a lot of time in that car!

I woke up after an hour long nap and Kasimi drove us around to see other people. We saw Kasimi's brother and his family.

The brothers look very similar!

We saw someone who Spencer taught as well.  She had a kitty! Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of said kitty.

We also went to see the stake president and his family.

After all that, Kasimi drove us to Sandy Resort, the place we were staying next.

The best picture I could get of the sign while in a moving vehicle.

Surprise! We got there ten minutes before dinner was supposed to start. At our dinner table was Freddy and Suzanne- a young couple from Sweden, but they live in New Zealand. They're divers and enjoy traveling a lot.

The room we stayed in at Sandy Beach.

The view from the porch area.

What our bed looked like when we waked in. All real flowers! I was very disappointed since I was going to keep some of the flowers and the maids took them away when they cleaned our room the next day...

Sunday

Originally, we were planning on biking to church since we got to use them for free at Sandy Beach. But Kasimi told us that he would be happy to drive us to church. At church, the conductor welcomed both of us over the pulpit since we were visiting. :) I told Spencer I thought he was going to ask him to speak. Later on, I was right as he was asked to say a few words to the congregation. Of course I have no idea what he said since he said it in Tongan! He translated what he said to me later on.

We took quite a few pictures after church (the majority of them are blurry since 10 year olds were taking them). I love how Tongans love being in pictures.

After pictures, we were outside chilling in the shade as Spencer was looking through his planners trying to see who he wanted to visit in Koulo. I was tired and was pretty comfy lying out on the grass (it is SO soft there) while Spencer put his list together. A girl named Mele came up to us and said that she wanted us to come back to her house. Additionally, I could rest at her place (we had briefly been to her place earlier that day). We agreed, and her mother ended up helping Spencer a lot with who was where in Tonga. While this happened, I slept on their couch. Two naps in two days at complete strangers (to me) houses!

You see that couch behind us? Yup, that's the napping couch.

After my nap, Mele started to walk with us to show us where everyone lived. One of the families remembered Spencer and was excited to see us. It was fun to see them catching up with Spencer.

It was about time to go to Lupe's for the pig feast, but we didn't have her number and only gave her ours. Their son, Sione (far left) knew where Lupe was staying and offered to drive us there. When we arrived, Lupe said it wasn't ready yet. This mean we had time to explore Sandy Beach before she would call us and say they're on their way to pick us up!

Spencer and I went to try and find the petroglyphs (scroll down on this link to see more info) and it was pretty fun although we didn't find them. We saw some cool rocks, creatures, (and some very creepy, HUGE spiders), and Spencer found a dead crab.

What a nice face Spencer is making!

This was ALL coral

One of my favorite pictures of this trip.

After exploring, we had dinner with Lupe and her family. It was my first time with pig skin and it was good! The watermelon there was also the best watermelon I've ever had in my LIFE. I miss the fruit in Tonga. Utah fruit isn't all that good once you've had Tongan fruit.

After our second dinner at Sandy Beach, we prepared ourselves to go swimming with Humpback Whales the next day...