I've heard if you show up to the hospital just barely dilated they will send you back home to wait until you are closer to pushing time... but if you return to the hospital too late, it can be too late to get the epidural. I'm extremely afraid of that happening to me. Can you tell the hospital no, that you aren't going to go back home? Would they just leave you in the waiting room or admit you? Surely they wouldn't make you leave the hospital, right?