I agree with the OP, not wanting a dog in their baby's face.. The dog may be wonderful, and amazingly sweet and gentle with the baby, but do you really want to find out when the kid is that small?
I grew up with dogs, from a tiny baby, so did my neice and nephew, who lived with us, and we NEVER had a problem.
I would never, ever leave a small child or baby around ANY animal.. Well, I think the goldfish are almost ok. Dogs see children as threats alot of the time, like said before, they don't see them as something cute a cuddly, they see them as a member of the pack, and a very low member most of the time. They are small, and seem to constantly challenge dogs because babies have a habit of STARING into their eyes, on all fours, and then grabbing their face/ear/tail ect. which a dog will see as an attack. Even a large dog just spinning around to give a bite to say "GO AWAY!" can kill a baby.
Also, there was a case I remember about a very, very love family st. bernard who grew up with a child, when the kid was 4-5 the dog attacked and killed him while the parents were god knows where.
After the dog was put down they found a broken off pencil in the dogs ear canal, which, as you might guess, must have caused the dog serious pain.
I love dogs(and all animals) with all my heart, but I see them as animals, not people. you can still love a dog and not treat them as a human, which in the long run will only cause problems anyway.
