Northern grass or southern? Southern grasses get fertilized during their growth period (depending on the species, monthly [Bermuda] or up to four times a year), while northern grasses are fertilized around Memorial Day, Labor Day, October 1, and when growth stops (the last is optional and arguable depending on where you are).

There's reasons for that with northern grasses, and it's slightly flexible depending on how you feed.

In wetter areas, or areas with very heavy rainfall, I usually recommend organic feeding with soybean or cottonseed meal to limit leaching into the water table and better nitrogen retention. Using slow-release organics, you can move those dates back two to three weeks.

The other option is a slow-release synthetic. I tend to prefer sulfur-coated urea over polymer-coated to avoid bits of polymer in the environment. However, again, one shouldn't feed the lawn early in the spring as that comes with consequences during summer.

We live east of Raleigh about half way down the slope of the plateau to the coastal plains. Our grass is starting to grow, If we waited until Memorial Day, to fertilize our fescue lawn, we would be entering that period that grass is thinking of preparing it self for the summer heat. In late April we will be looking at temperatures between 85 and 95. We can get fescue to grow as our lawn is shaded for about half the day so it can survive the summer. When I planted the grass in early September last year the weekly rains of about 3/4 inch was great and the grass grew well. I did not expect we would almost become Noah through the winter.

My gut feeling is I should not apply fertilizer while the lawn is extremely wet.

You're southern transition, then, so we back the dates to May 10-15. Weekly rains of 3/4" are perfect, so that's not going to be an issue. Labor Day may move to September 15, but not much further than that.

You actually do go when the grass is out of the primary growth phase, and when it's slowing for summer. The reason is that during spring growth, the lawn is tapping the roots for carbohydrates and sending it into that growth. Feeding at that point goes directly into growth, which looks fantastic--and further taps the roots of their carbohydrates, reducing summer survivability.

If you feed after the growth has stopped, and when the grass is starting to move into summer phase, the nitrogen processes back into stored carbohydrate and food for summer survival, which is a pretty hard season for grass (when it would, in nature, die back pretty hard).

In your region, which is hotter than mine, it dies back pretty badly. Spring feeding is going to do a fair amount of damage, even worse than up here, which is bad.

Your first-year lawn is going to need some coddling anyway. Feeding too early would make that so much worse.

"My gut feeling is I should not apply fertilizer while the lawn is extremely wet."

Never a fast release, or synthetic, no. Organics are not a problem. Those would be applied, for you, around April 25-May 1. The only issue there would be flooding off, so I'd not apply if that would be a problem.

kr, did you winterize last fall? If so, how did you do that and what product(s) did you apply?