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With our oldest I did the feedings alone, with my twins I needed help to get them latched then he would go back to bed. With my daughter I did it alone. To be honest my husband is not very good with little amounts of sleep. I would much rather have him rested and Useful during the day than staying up next to me for no reason during the nights.

@maybebaby: you got so many great responses but I'll throw in what worked for us!

DH didn't get any paternity leave & was back to work immediately because he has his own business, but he was able to make it home at lunch time to give me some free time & shower, etc.

At night - i slept with the baby in a separate room so that he could sleep, this worked for us because I was feeding the baby every 2 hours, I was constantly hungry so I was making snacks & I was keeping the TV on to make sure I could stay up....Also, my husband has a really hard time falling back asleep, so with him working, and me staying home, this arrangement worked for us.

But what he did was after our 8 o'clock-ish feeding he would take the baby and I would go up and get usually around 3 hours of uninterrupted glorious sleep, then at 11ish when the baby was up he would change him, wake me up, and pass off.

This system was GREAT for us - I went into the night feeling really rested and still slept when the baby slept, but I was just so aware of his every breath that it was just cat naps, but after those few hours I felt like a new person!

Maybe after his paternity leave something like this will work for you guys if he is worried about waking up? I understand wanting him to be there to help out but I did not think he needed to wake up with me to change diapers then pass off for feedings, at least not in those early days when it was so frequent and I was on maternity leave anyway...

Once the baby is here you guys will figure out a system. We didn't plan too much in advance because we didn't know what to expect, but once he was here, we figured out something that worked for us.... It's so great having the new baby that the lack of sleep barely even matters

For the first couple weeks nursing was a three person job. First of all we had to wake the baby up to eat. Which was quite a task in itself because she was such a snoozer (I miss those days!). Then once she was finally awake I would need to hold her head with one hand and my boob with the other hand. Hubs would then support/position the rest of her body and keep her rands out of her face. I definitely needed his help! But luckily he worked from home for over a month so I didn't have to feel guilty about him getting up with us.