Father of a non-sleeping child

My son is 21 months old, which means in 21 months, my wife and I have not slept through the night. We don't know what to do. We tried letting him cry it out, but he decided instead of crying and falling asleep, he would cry and vomit all over the crib. And now that he can climb out of the crib, we can't leave him alone in there. I think we need to transition him to a bed, but then we have to baby-proof the room. As it stands right now, his room is a playground of dangerous devices. There's the wall sockets. The bookcase that could collapse on him. The closet with all kinds of hazards. Come to think of it, his room resembles the temple at the beginning of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
We are hoping he'll just grow out of it. Friends have said when they reach two, they start sleeping through the night. Hmmm, three months to go then.
If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions on things that might work so we can get him sleeping through the night before then, that would be great.