S.
When I had my first, I almost felt guilty giving him a pacifier. He's almost 4 and this was just before all this SIDS research. Anyway, he took to it right away and it made naptime/bedtime really easy. I agonized over taking it away, and waited a loooong time. He was about 3 and a few months before I finally did it. And when I did, it was a piece of cake. I told him for a few weeks that the pacifier fairy came to take pacifiers away from big boys so that she could give them to new babies who needed them, and that she left a present. I kept asking him what he wanted from the fairy. So, eventually I just did it, took all the pacifiers and left him his present. He was very excited. the next night, he asked for his pacifier, but we reminded him about the fairy and that was that!
My second child did not take to pacifiers at all, but was still a great sleeper. Though as an infant, she was a bit more difficult to soothe since she didn't have a pacifier.
So, all said and done, my advice is pro-pacifier, for SIDS reasons, and for sanity's sake.