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I don't remember exactly when we stopped swaddling but once LO started sucking her thumb we'd just swaddle her preferred arm out.

As for the slit in back, my understanding from the package of swaddle blankets we bought was that it is to thread the carseat/swing between leg buckle through; in case you want to secure them in the carseat/swing while swaddled. You would put the swaddle blanket down, thread the leg buckle through the slit then insert baby, buckle in and swaddle the rest of the way.

also, what swaddles do you use that have the slit? We used Woombies, then when those werent tight enough, we used Aden & Anais blankets with the woombie.

We didn't stop until after 6 months and we used regular A+A swaddle blankets or the miracle blanket so I have no idea what slit you have in your swaddle. When we took away the swaddle we did it cold turkey in conjunction with sleep training so by that age my son could roll to his stomach and was able to self soothe with his pacifier by himself.

We stopped at 2 1/2 month, she just didn't seem to love it anymore. It was great when we did stop because then she could find her thumb, and that's when she started sleeping through the night.

We swaddled until 4.5 months. He learned how to roll over while swaddled and that was the end of it. Luckily, we were right next to him when it happened.

Early on, we used the swaddleme's and we also had 1 halo swaddle sack. Once he outgrew those, we used the A+A swaddle blankets for swaddling. I did the russian swaddle. I found that it was easier to do and it didn't restrict any leg or hip movement. I also put a receiving blanket on the inside for DS's arms. It's the same idea as the miracle blanket.

We never figured out what the slit was for either. We thought it might have been there to allow baby to bend at the waist without pulling the fabric and undoing the swaddle.

ETA: Here's a link to the russian swaddle. This is where I learned how to do it.

hahaha - the slit is for the carseat. You put the swaddle in the carseat, then lay the baby in it, buckle them in first, then swaddle them up. It's pretty handy. Although my LO sleeps great in the carseat without being swaddled because of the confined feeling of it.

My LO is 11 weeks and still swaddled, both night and naptimes. He has nearly outgrown his summer infant swaddles, but we also have two in size large. Kind stinks though cause the infant ones only go up to 12 lbs (lo is 11 lbs 12 oz), and the large starts at 14 lbs so he's stuck in the middle right now. We use the Aden and Anais blankets to swaddle him ourselves.

I think we stopped swaddling around 3 months cold turkey and she had no problems but then a few weeks later had some sleep issues (she discovered her arms/hands and would keep swinging her arms up and down and it kept her from falling asleep) but that resolved itself after a week or two. She sleeps in a sleep sack now...it's pretty cold here still so I don't want her to get cold

We're still using a swaddle at 5 mos. for night time sleeps. We stopped swaddling for naps when he hit the 4month sleep regression and was only napping for 30min no matter what we did. He's been sleeping for 11-12 hours a night since he was 3 or 4 weeks old, so we're not messing with a good thing until we have to! I use an A+A blanket and do "the double swaddle" (google it and watch the youtube video) which is nearly impossible to break out of. We also put a halo sleep sack swaddle on top of it to really get him all pinned down

@purrpletulips: nice! I was wondering what that was for!