Did your LO use a paci? What age did you wean? And how did you do it?

A little background: I have been working on my 5.5 mo old's sleep lately and have gotten advice from some of you, which I appreciate! My last post you all suggested I move his bedtime up from his 9-930 bedtime to our now 7 pm bedtime because "sleep begets sleep". He is sooo much easier to put down now at this earlier time and now that I am sticking to a better bedtime routine. BUT now that I am putting him down earlier he is waking up more frequently and the wakings start earlier. I usually get a good 5-6 hours before the first waking, which used to be about 3 am, but that has moved up to 11 pm and then he usually wakes about every 2 hours thereafter. Most of the time I just have to replace his pacifier and he goes to sleep. This makes me wonder if I should nix it so that he can learn to fall asleep without the paci and thus would not need it during his night wakings.

Thoughts??