Follow up to dog vs. babysitter

[justthetip]

So I had a little extra time to formally introduce dog and babysitter when she arrived. Dog completely flipped out and barked at her like crazy when I first let her in the house. I got her calmed down and the babysitter was able to hang out and pet her without a problem. It was getting dark, so I put her in her crate with a blanket over it before I left. When we used to crate her, she would crate on command. When I tried that, she ran up to the crate and then veered off at the last minute. Anyways, I got her in and left. She barked while we were gone for a good amount of time, but was far enough away to not disturb the baby. And the babysitter could get to the baby without fear of being attacked.

I admittedly am the worst kind of dog owner - the half assed disciplinarian. I've read several books and am consistent with basic house rules: sit/stay to go in/out or eat/drink and release with 'break', same with getting in/out of the car. My husband unfortunately has never respected the concept of consistently enforcing a few rules and has undermined a lot of my effort. I have gotten lax on other commands, and she now can be a pain off leash (won't come when called if she finds something of particular interest) and at the front door. With the baby I haven't had the time to reinforce as much, and now she gets less exercise due to the heat where we live (although her bad behaviors don't really improve with more exercise). I totally own the fact that these are lame excuses, but the dog has not been a priority and I am paying for it in some ways.

I had not heard of NILF, but I read up about it and have been implementing more of it the last few days. So here's my question: How do I handle barking outside without positively reinforcing it? My dog barks at sunset and when she wants to be let in. I used to have more tolerance for it, but now am hypersensitive that she will wake the baby (which she has done by barking outside her window). I considered an outdoor mounted bark control birdhouse thing, but our yard is U-shaped, and she does most of her barking at the gates on either end of the U (also where baby's room and our living room window are located). We've used bark collars with some success, but it didn't seem to teach her anything. I feel I reinforce her barking when I let her in, but it's hard to catch her in a moment when she's not barking to let her in. Sorry this was so long-winded. I'm open to any suggestions or resources you can point me to.
About my dog: She is a 5.5 year old Jack Russell mix. We have never done dog training classes because of time/schedule constraints, but I started her out as a puppy with strict full-time home crate training.
ETA: she has never attacked anyone except a few unfortunate birds & lizards

[nital]

Honestly...keeping a noisy house is one of the best things we did. Between constant noise and the sound machine in her room...my kid usually sleeps right through the dogs barking...and my great Dane mixes aren't exactly quiet.

And there's really not much you can do about the barking unless you are outside with her whenever she's outside. If she's outside barking to be let in, you're reinforcing the behavior by letting her in. But you're also reinforcing it by shushing her. You need to let her out, go outside with her, and then let her back in before she barks. Another option would be to give her another behavior to be let in, but I'm not a fan of this. You don't want her doing anything destructive like scratching the house, but if it's something like ringing a bell....would you hear it inside?