I said this to a friend recently and she laughed and said I had got it mixed up with 'feel it in my bones' but I have definately heard my mum and grandma say it. Is it just my family?
No, it's widespread. Basically, this is much - though obviously not exactly - the same use of 'waters' as you see in the phrase 'her waters broke' when a woman is about to give birth. All 'I feel it in my waters' means is 'I feel it in the very heart of my being'...ie it's exactly the same as 'I feel it in my bones.'
I should perhaps have added above, when I mentioned 'the heart of my being', that our actual bodies are awash - as it were! - with all sorts of liquids (waters)...blood, sweat, saliva, tears, urine, amniotic fluid, seminal fluid, gastric juices and so forth. If all of these are telling you, in effect, that something is amiss, then you need to pay attention.
I dont know about all that messy stuff but I've heared both them sayings used a lot, usually when talking about the weather, ie "I think it's gonna rain, I can feel it in my waters/ bones".
Mums and Grandma's seem to be walkig barometers.
The opening line of the highest grossing motion picture trilogy of all time reads...
The world is changed: I feel it in the
water, I feel it in the earth, I smell it
in the air...Much that once was is lost,
for none now live who remember it.
Well, Mycats and J, you've gone and reminded me of the old saying, "She was only an admiral's daughter but her naval was a well-known base for seamen." (You can alter the appropriate spellings to suit yourselves.)
something that you say when you are certain something is true or will happen, although you have no proof. Something terrible is going to happen. I feel it in my bones.