Coffee Table Cottonwood Slabs?

Decided to try my luck at free hand chainsaw slabbing with a piece of cottonwood that stands somewhere between 4 and 5 feet high. I used a 20" bar on the saw with a chain I'd sharpened to 5 degrees for ripping instead of crosscutting. As you can see from this photo, the 20" bar didn't even come close to going all the way through the log:

But I went ahead anyway and made three total cuts down the length of the log with the 20" butt kicker.

Don't know if anyone noticed, but the photo above also shows one slab already on the ground to the left in the picture. Here's another look at it on the ground.

I'm thinking there has to be a better and safer way to do all this. So, I'll lay the log on its side, make a cut from one end of the log into the groove all the way through, go to the other end of the log and do the same thing from there. Somebody please remind me to set the log "up" on some wood planks or something to keep it off the ground and help prevent the chain from digging some dirt!

I'll post some photos of the slabs once I'm done. These old bones of mine just do NOT seem to want to cooperate as much now as they did when I was younger!