Health is Beauty: H2O

I'm at that point where my skin is feeling dry, my throat is feeling dry, and my lips require more lip gloss than normal (and I'm having the worst contractions ever at 32 weeks of pregnancy).What's the deal? It's as simple as this: a lack of H2O. My body is screaming for it and doing so in its own way. It's saying, "Hey stupid! I'm dehydrating over here!!!!" (I'm saying this in my best over the top New Yorker's accent)

I'm trying to find out how much should I drink. My mother claims, "8, 8oz glasses a day". Can one be over-hydrated? I looked it up. By golly, one can be over-hydrated. It can bring on "hyponatremia". I can go on and on about the facts of diluting the sodium within the blood, but that's not the point right now. I just want to know how much water should I take in and does it have to be water? Can it just be fluids? Nope! It has to be water. According to Men's Health (yes I said it! Men's Health!), "Typically, though, guzzling down too much fluid—especially from certain “ re-hydration” drinks—can ironically cause dehydration. “When the drink has a high level of sugar and additives, for example, and thus more solutes than you naturally have in your blood, the body has to take its own fluid to dilute it, so it can be absorbed.”  You mean to tell me this drink is making me thirsty too? 
It seems as if there is a guideline to figure out how much water one should consume. . . and it's your body that sets the guideline. Listen to it. It knows what it wants and doesn't want. For example, if you wake up in the morning thirsty, then guess what? You need to up your water intake.