phpmailer suddenly got very slow - phpmailer

Question

I use phpmailer for sending emails and while it worked flawlesly until now, I noticed that sending emails got very very slow, around 2-3 minutes. The mails are sent, but the waiting time is killing me.
My code is:
protected function SendPHPMailerMail($from = null, $name = null, $subject = null, $message = null)
{
require_once ('phpmailer/PHPMailerAutoload.php');
if($from && $name && $subject && $message)
{
$mail = new PHPMailer;
//$mail->SMTPDebug = 3;
$mail->Debugoutput = 'html';
$mail->isSMTP();
$mail->Host = 'smtp.gmail.com'; // sets GMAIL as the SMTP server
$mail->SMTPAuth = true; // enable SMTP authentication
$mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls'; // sets the prefix to the servier
$mail->Port = 587; // set the SMTP port for the GMAIL server
$mail->Username = 'x#gmail.com'; // GMAIL username
$mail->Password = 'pass'; // GMAIL password
$mail->AddReplyTo($from, $name);
$mail->AddAddress('x#gmail.com', 'Me');
$mail->SetFrom('x#gmail.com', 'Me');
$mail->Subject = $subject;
$mail->Body = $message;
$mail->Send();
}
}
I tried debugging, there are no errors. I read in a different question thread that using gethostbyname('smtp.gmail.com'); worked for some, but not for me. I haven't changed anything on the server and this popped out of nowhere. Not sure what to do.
Thanks!
edit: used SMTPdebug=2 and this is what I get
SERVER -> CLIENT: 220 smtp.gmail.com ESMTP 90sm16517084otw.3 - gsmtp
CLIENT -> SERVER: EHLO www.host.com
SERVER -> CLIENT: 250-smtp.gmail.com at your service, [107.182.234.254]250-SIZE 35882577250-8BITMIME250-STARTTLS250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES250-PIPELINING250-CHUNKING250 SMTPUTF8
CLIENT -> SERVER: STARTTLS
SERVER -> CLIENT: 220 2.0.0 Ready to start TLS
CLIENT -> SERVER: EHLO www.host.com
SERVER -> CLIENT: 250-smtp.gmail.com at your service, [107.182.234.254]250- SIZE 35882577250-8BITMIME250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN XOAUTH2 PLAIN-CLIENTTOKEN OAUTHBEARER XOAUTH250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES250-PIPELINING250-CHUNKING250 SMTPUTF8
CLIENT -> SERVER: AUTH LOGIN
SERVER -> CLIENT: 334 VXNlcm5hbWU6
CLIENT -> SERVER: Y29udGFjdEBmaWxlY2x1c3Rlci5jb20=
SERVER -> CLIENT: 334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6
CLIENT -> SERVER: Z2l6bW8uMTIzcXdl
SERVER -> CLIENT: 235 2.7.0 Accepted
CLIENT -> SERVER: MAIL FROM:<x#gmail.com>
SERVER -> CLIENT: 250 2.1.0 OK 90sm16517084otw.3 - gsmtp
CLIENT -> SERVER: RCPT TO:<x#gmail.com>
SERVER -> CLIENT: 250 2.1.5 OK 90sm16517084otw.3 - gsmtp
CLIENT -> SERVER: DATA
SERVER -> CLIENT: 354 Go ahead 90sm16517084otw.3 - gsmtp
CLIENT -> SERVER: Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2016 20:44:01 +0000
CLIENT -> SERVER: To: Me <x#gmail.com>
CLIENT -> SERVER: From: Me <x#gmail.com>
CLIENT -> SERVER: Reply-To: X <sender#gmail.com>
CLIENT -> SERVER: Subject: Partnership and business development
CLIENT -> SERVER: Message-ID: <6dae364927ad751cc524f07a77f5eea1#www.host.com>
CLIENT -> SERVER: X-Mailer: PHPMailer 5.2.16 (https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer)
CLIENT -> SERVER: MIME-Version: 1.0
CLIENT -> SERVER: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
CLIENT -> SERVER:
CLIENT -> SERVER: message
CLIENT -> SERVER:
CLIENT -> SERVER: .
SERVER -> CLIENT: 250 2.0.0 OK 1476996370 90sm16517084otw.3 - gsmtp
CLIENT -> SERVER: QUIT
SERVER -> CLIENT: 221 2.0.0 closing connection 90sm16517084otw.3 - gsmtp
I replaced the actual values of the site and emails.