Itunes says my Ipad is in recovery mode.

About three days ago my ipad (1 gen) wouldn't cut on so i did the whole restart thing with the wake/sleep button and the home button. Then maybe fifteen minutes later I tried to cut it on but the same thing happened so i thought maybe it was dead so i charged it but no 'charging' thing came up. I ended up having to restart it three times. I left it alone for a day or so and then today i even tried to restart but nothing happened so connected it to my computer. Itunes then said that 'Itunes detects that this Ipad is in recovery mode. Restart it to connect with Itunes.' What is recovery mode? Does restarting it lose everything? I don't know what to do and can't find anything online. I got my Ipad for Christmas so have had it for about five or six months and have had no problems.