I'm Dreading Sleep Training

It has become a struggle to get my little guy to go to sleep.  Once he is sleeping, he sleeps fairly well, but getting to that point has proven to be a rather large challenge.  This time change doesn't help either.  He is a complete night owl.  I am ready to go to bed before him.  It's my fault.  I didn't sleep train him when he was smaller.  I now need to get him to the point where I can put him in his crib awake, but it is a battle I am not looking forward to.  I kept saying "when we get a house I will make this happen" but who knows when that will be.

Tonight after we finished our night time routine my husband and I turned off all the lights (and the tv was off of course) and tried to get him to go right to bed.  I put him in his crib, but it was clear that this was not going to work as he was literally trying to climb out.  I think we can put the mattress down one more notch so that is the next step.  We instead put him in his swing after I tried simply rocking with him.  We need to stop using the swing and get to a point where he can soothe himself to sleep.  We gave him a toy to play with and sat with him until he was sleeping. He was asleep about 40 minutes earlier than the past few nights so I can't complain, but I think the time has come to sleep train.  I am going to need a serious bubble bath to handle that stress!