Mum-to-be decorates two nurseries – one for her baby and one for lifelike dolls

Natasha Harridge is expecting a baby with her partner, Jordan Rodwell, but she’s decorating two nurseries instead of one.

One room will be for her child, who’s due in February 2023, while the other will be for the collection of ‘reborn’ dolls she’s been building since she was a teen.

The dolls were a great source of comfort for her after she lost six pregnancies in four years, and she refers to herself as their mother.

Natasha, 23, said: ‘Even when I have my own baby, the reborns will always be a part of my life.

‘But when I lost my babies, it meant so much to me to be able to sit and cuddle them.

‘I am fully aware that they are not real, but there is an emotional bond there and I do call myself their mum and love them.’

Natasha’s decorating the second nursery with Jordan’s, 26, approval, with the one for their child painted yellow and the one for the dolls painted sage green.

She is already looking forward to introducing her real baby to the collection, with each doll costing around £500.

She said: ‘I won’t have as much time to spend with the reborns because, obviously, my real baby will be my priority. But I would love to be able to introduce them to each other.

‘Once the baby gets a bit older, if they show an interest in the dolls, I would love to get them their own reborn doll called a “playborn.” They are made specifically for children and cost around £100 to £200.

‘I like to imagine, once we have expanded our family even more, watching our son or daughter at Christmas opening their first reborn doll and seeing their expression.’

Natasha, a carer, first met milkman Jordan, on a dating app in 2021, and a month into their relationship, she introduced him to reborn doll Scarlet.

She was ecstatic to find he ‘fell in love with her’.

She said: ‘He calls Scarlet his “Daddy’s girl” now and loves her sitting on the sofa with him and interacting with her.

‘He’ll say, “Look, she’s watching us watch TV” or “She’s watching me play my game.”

‘It’s really sweet.’

Jordan is also looking forward to the birth of his child, and to introducing the baby to the reborns.

He said: ‘Before I actually saw the reborns, I wasn’t that interested in them because I originally thought they were weird.

‘But one day Tasha had Scarlet downstairs when I came over, after we had just starting dating, and about a week or so later, I thought she was quite cute. Ever since then, I have shown more interest in them.

‘I do prefer the toddlers. The babies are okay, but I find them very small and don’t really do anything with them.’

Jordan continued: ‘It will be a big change to have a real baby, but I have grown up around kids, so I have a lot of experience with babies.

‘And I am excited for when they become a little bit older and I can show them new adventures.’

Jordan even suggested the pair buy another reborn toddler together to keep Scarlet company, which they called Sammie.

Natasha said: ‘Jordan bought Sammie for £500 at Christmas, so that Scarlet could have a brother, which is really lovely.

‘They stay in the nursery along with my newborn reborns, Meadow and Rue.’

Natasha, who was adopted when she was three, was given her first reborn doll, which cost £70, for her 15th birthday by her parents.

She said: ‘I found a video on YouTube just after Christmas of someone unboxing their reborn doll.

‘At first, I was really confused, because it looked like a real baby, and then I realised it was painted. I really wanted one.

‘My first baby was Hannah, who had brown hair, closed eyes and open hands, so you could see her little toes and fingers.

‘Whenever I had a bad day at school, I could come home to Hannah and it calmed me down to hold her and change her nappy and comb her hair.’

From then on, for every Christmas and Birthday, Natasha asked for another reborn doll.

Her collection took on a whole new meaning for her in 2016 after two of Natasha’s relatives miscarried.

She said: ‘I was so excited to meet their babies.

‘When I found out they had lost them, I was honestly devastated. I couldn’t stop crying.

‘It broke my heart that I would never get to meet or know the babies.

‘I just remember hugging Hannah, my reborn, so tightly.’

Natasha started making videos with the dolls for her YouTube channel, which she began in 2015.

‘I started off with unboxing videos and tours of the dolls in my room,’ she said. ‘Then I had requests for role-play videos, so I would pretend to put them in the bath and hold their heads, or put them in matching outfits and film myself putting them in their buggy and taking them to the park.’

Natasha continued: ‘People would always think they were real and ask how old they were.

‘If I was in a good mood, I would explain they were dolls and why I had them, otherwise, I’d just go along with it and say they were however many months old.

‘I love to look down the baby aisle when I’m out shopping and often buy a few bits or baby clothes for them, too.’

When, at 19, Natasha started working at her local council, she was able to buy more dolls.

Her collection was 13-strong by 2018, and worth roughly £5,000, with the most costly of the bunch being the blonde-haired ‘chunky’ Everley, which cost £1,000.

She said: ‘Most weekends, I would wake up, change them and take them for walks in a pram or sit and pretend to read them stories or feed them.

‘I took my Aubrielle, who had painted hair and absolutely gorgeous dark blue eyes, away with my family to Dorset in 2017.

‘It was so nice to have that holiday time one-on-one time to bond with her.

‘I took her out around town a few times to look at the shops and down to the beach occasionally.’

Natasha’s boyfriends over the years have accepted her bond with her collection, with Natasha recalling: ‘I told my first boyfriend at 16 straight away that I had reborns, and it didn’t bother him.

‘[I even took one of my toddler reborn dolls, Lucas, on a date with me to Birmingham, because I had to travel on the train, which I hate.

‘My date thought he was quite cute!’

While her bond with her collection – which now amounts to four in total as she sold some after she stopped interacting with them – was strong before, Natasha really came to rely on them for comfort after she suffered her miscarriages.

She said: ‘It was devastating.

‘The reborns will never replace my losses, but they did give me comfort.

‘It really helped to have a cuddle with them and hold them.’

Natasha endured two miscarriages with Jordan last year, and before meeting Jordan, in November 2020, she had an ectopic pregnancy in her fallopian tube which ended in termination.

She also has three earlier miscarriages between January 2019 and April 2020.

Natasha is a regular visitor to reborn doll shows up and down the country, and is already excited about the next show in the calendar in October, in Peterborough.

‘I’ve been going for nine years and when I go next year, I will be taking my real baby, too,’ she said.

‘I will feel like I’ve come full circle.’

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