How much water do seeds need?

I've got a bunch of seeds lying between sheets of kitchen paper, and they're pretty much drenched in water. The seeds started to crack after a couple of days and i could see the taproots but they wasn't protruding from the seed shell - now they're closing up again. So my question is how wet should or shouldn't the paper towels be?

Thanks

As soon as they started to come out, you should have planted them. Sounds like you used the right amount of water if they began to come out.