Baby, Earthside...

I just gave birth to my 5th child on 4/10/14. My first child came early and was delivered at the hospital, the following three were birthed at home/ unassisted. Fast forward 10 years later and I am pregnant with #5, me and my husband of 5 years first child together. Because it had been 10 years since my last and his first birthing experience we opted for a midwife. Smooth, easy peasy pregnancy. Due date came and due date went. The midwives said at 41 weeks and 3 days they would offer to sweep my membranes. Okay, sounds great because I was so ready to meet my little 'girl'. The morning that I was 41 weeks and 2 days gestation I woke up early, my mom was visiting from Florida to help 'after' the baby was born. Apparently, baby was waiting for her. We picked mom up on 4/9. So, on 4/10 around 8:30am I felt the strangest popping, spasm thing- okay that was different. At 8:50am I had my first contraction. I got in the shower at 9:15ish, had 3 more contractions, got out and requested my birthing ball and fuzzy socks. Okay ready for a few hours of intense contractions. I must prepare mentally because they were on top of each other and really strong.We called the midwives at about 10 ish and they headed over (they were about 45 minutes from us) My husband and mom started setting up the pool, boiling water and stoking up the wood stove. By now I am off the ball and on my hands and knees next to the couch. I takes about 45 min. to an hour to get the pool set up, awesome they are distracted and I am secretly pushing the whole time, because it feels sooo good. I am on all fours growling like a tiger/bear/lion woman, grabbing and pulling at the rug and just experiencing this primal energy that I do not recall feeling with any other birth.
Okay, midwives on their way, hubby exclaims with joy that the pool is ready and I let him know that's great but the head is coming and
I am not moving . He checks and sure enough he sees a bit of hair. I didn't want to freak them out,but my water had broken a few minutes before and I could feel the baby moving down the birth canal with each growl/ push. A few pushes more and the baby's head was almost out. The baby was a bit stuck at the shoulders and I was waiting for another contraction , but I could sense and hear their worry, so just before I was going to stand up, my husband asked me to stand, so I stood up and leaned over, and out our baby 'boy' came. My husband was shocked to see a penis as well as I but overjoyed to finally meet this beautiful being.
The placenta came out about 5-10 minutes later and then....the midwives showed up. Our son was born at 10:56 am on 4/10/14. The birth lasted from first contraction to and Earthside baby in exactly 2 hours and 6 minutes. He weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz, 21 1/4 in.  long and a 14 inch head, perfect, perfect, perfect.
Yes, my shoulders hurt from trying to rip the carpet up, my voice is hoarse from growling, and the after pains have taken a bit of breathing to get through them, but today they are much better. My stomach muscles are non existent but that is to be expected, I did gain about 50lbs with this pregnancy, which I swear was mostly placenta. No tears, only a small insignificant scratch and the bleeding is almost to a lite period. Drinking placenta smoothies (which is a first for me) and they are pretty delicious.
Midwives have requested that next time I call after the first contraction....I will, but truly, everything happened exactly how it was meant to. It is worth noting that I made my husband watch the Ina May Farm movie, which is why he knew to ask me to stand. My mom was a bit freaked out but she is a trooper and I think she needed to experience what a natural, non-stressed birth is like and.....to boil water for a pool that never got used.