You forgot poor little Raggedy Ann! :-)

I love the Waldorf dolls, they are beautiful.

I gave my daughter the Baby Stella with the black pigtails for her first birthday. She likes her, and hugs her, and sometimes tries to feed her with her bottle--not Stella's bottle (she has a feeding set complete with bottle) usually, but with the real milk bottle. I've had to clean milk off Stella's face more than a few times. To be honest I think my daughter's still a bit young for a real baby doll, I bet she'll "rediscover" Stella in a few months. I like Stella as she has accessories that I can give my daughter for future gifts. She's too young to dress Stella, but that will come later, I think. We already have Stella's coat and hat set, which is very cute and well-made.

We also have a couple of Kathe Kruse's Rainbow babies, which are he younger version of the Sweetheart dolls. They have the most precious faces, which is impressive considering how simple they are.

I have a three year old girl and a one year old girl. We have Baby Stella, whom I thought was adorable, and she doesn't get played with much by either child. For my older daughter's first baby doll (when she was 15 months), I bought a Corolle baby doll. That one has never been played with much either.
We have a ton of dolls...those two, a manufactured Raggedy Andy, two handmade Raggedy Ann/Raggedy Andies, my old Cabbage Patch dolls, and the list goes on.

And do you want to know the two that get played with constantly? A relatively unattractive, no-name baby-sized doll that my older daughter received as a gift last year, and a $2.99 tiny baby doll from the doll section at Target. Actually, we have three of those tiny cheap ones, and they are all favorites.

That was a long-winded way of saying that it's impossible to predict what your daughter is going to latch on to. Get her a nice one as a gift, but it may not end up being "the one."

I'm currently obsessed with finding the perfect Waldorf doll--I want to budget for a nice one for my daughter but I'm starting to wonder if I should just collect a few for myself as well.

My yrs old daugther had a Raplapla ragdoll from a friend and it's love..
http://www.raplapla.com/

Raplaplas are unique limited edition quality dolls and cuddly toys made in Montréal by Erica Perrot.

LOVE this doll..got one for my daughter. Super soft, organic cotton, unique and it's a great company (for clothes too). They sometimes go on sale - i purchased mine for $10

http://www.happygreenbee.com/shop.cfm?c=5&p=16
http://www.happygreenbee.com/shop.cfm?c=5&p=17

we have the Blablakid squirrel McNuttie, my DD loves him! On Xmas will arrive her new specially made waldorf doll, called Sophia :) I hope she like her!

My daughter chose her first baby doll in the aisles of Toys'R'Us -- she had a meltdown, and refused to leave the premises without it. It was a Chou Chou doll by Zapf. The two were inseparable for many, many months.

Also, when I was pregnant with her brother, she said she too had a baby in her tummy, so we bought her a tiny anatomically-correct boy doll which was "delivered" the same day as her brother. It was a 9.5" Berenguer newborn doll.

Both of these dolls get lots of play -- by both kids.

As well, she was given a beautiful custom-made Waldorf doll, which sits on her bed, and gets occasional play.

Good dolls have lots of clothes, are easily washable and basically indestructible.

I am wondering about getting Zid Zid Kids Louise and Imma...

http://www.zidzid.us/Play/Handmade-Dolls-Imma/prod_33.html

We have some BlaBla dolls at our retail store for display and they are even cuter and softer than you can imagine. The mermaid has been the most popular. Of course we specialize in the doll beds - www.javisdavis.com/dollbed.html because they all need a place to sleep, right?

My daughter received the Haba Lilli doll for her first birthday (though she renamed her Hayley) and then a Baby Stella for her second birthday. She treats Lilli like a friend (shopping, tea parties, etc), whereas Baby Stella is her baby. It kind of depends on the day which one she favors.

My 20 month old son loves his Haba doll (Lukas) (same idea as the Lilli doll pictured above) who he's named "baby" - he insists on carrying baby, and his stuffed penguin and squirrel, all around the house with him. We got baby when my son was a year old and he was largely ignored until a month or so ago. I agree with the previous posters though that it's really hard to predict what they'll latch onto...

Um, Raggedy Ann, helll-loo-o!

I'm so glad I have a boy.

Nothing beats a Bamboletta !!

I hit submit too quick.
I set out to find the perfect doll for my little one and once I saw the Bamboletta dolls nothing came even close to it. They are the most amazing quality and cute as heck to boot !! They are handmade and each one is unique and gorgeous.
And Christina is an absolute pleasure to work with.
Check out www.bamboletta.com

Have to second the Bamboletta doll rave -- that is the Waldorf doll my daughter has sitting on her bed. Christina knit the turquoise sweater for Indy (the doll's name) especially for my daughter, and made the eyes that colour too. They are truly lovely! (but we are very careful to avoid getting her dirty!!)

Where's Raggedy Ann? She was my first doll and perfect! :)

My 10 month daughter currently loves this stuffed panda bear my brother got from Hong Kong. I agree with a lot of posters that they'll choose their own favorites.

The Bamboletta dolls are beautiful dolls! I think I'll get one for my daughter when she's a bit older, they do say they're for age 3 and up. Most aren't really "first dolls,' although they do make some: http://bamboletta.com/shop/item.php?item_id=433&category_id=20 They look very much like the similar Kathe Kruse dolls.

I think the hard part will be trying to decide what our doll will look like, if we get a custom doll. I love so many of the dolls featured, from the one with copper curls that looks like my niece, to the "punk" girl with pink and blond hair. They're all totally precious!

Bitty Baby is my husband's grandmother's traditional first Christmas gift for all of the granddaughters -- and now, great-granddaughters. My 22 month old has been enamored with her Bitty Baby since she got it last year.

My daughter's favorite is also a cheap no name doll my mom bought her, from Wal-mart I think! It's also been a major source of contention between her and two of her girl cousins (one's a year older, the other a year younger) when we have big get togethers. Even though the cousins always have their own dolls that are lots nicer and come with toys, bottles, and changes of clothes. We finally figured it out: their dolls were lots bigger than my daughter's doll and "Baby" is much easier for them to carry and care for like the rest of us mommies. My mom bought both the cousins their own dolls just like ours, and now those are the only dolls they play with at home or away! And no more fighting.
So one thing to consider might be whether the doll is too unwieldy or heavy for your child.

@Muwach
Boys play with dolls too. It's a good thing, actually, if you want them to have a chance at practicing being a care giver. Dads bond with babies. Why can't boys bond with their version of a baby (the doll)?

On another note, my cousin's daughter had absolutely no interest in dolls until very recently (she just turned 2). So I'm making her a 12 inch Waldorf doll for Christmas.

They're not as hard as I thought they'd be! The biggest challenge was finding the materials. I eventually gave up searching through craft and fabric stores and bought a kit from Dancing Rain Dolls. The doll is turning out really well so far!

I'm making a teething doll in Waldorf style for her 6 month old sister.

http://www.kingpod.com/?page=ragdoll_pattern.html

I made my 19 month old daughter a doll using this pattern. I used thrifted linen dresses for the fabric, hair and facial features and spent about $3 on the entire project. I used scrap fabric for a couple of dresses, one of which matches my daughter's Christmas dress.

I love the pattern and the only bad thing about it so far is that the dress pattern (included with the doll pattern) was too small for my doll - I'm guessing that I stuffed her too much, but as a result, had to redraw the pattern about 1 1/2 inches bigger.

I will continue to make the dolly clothes to match my daughters or as she has an attraction to a certain fabric.

You all talk about buying handmade dolls... I'd much rather make my own and save the money for college. :) Oh, and how many other kids have 100% recycled linen dollies?