Jesus' baptism sanctified the waters for all baptisms. He did not need baptism to be born of God. He was certainly already born of God because He was the beginning, and "in the beginning", the Word, begotten by God, eternal. We, in our mortal being, must be born of God through water and spirit - baptism - since we are not eternally made, constrained to temporal being until such time we are called into eternity. To prepare for that, we must be born of God, and not just man.
The Church, in practicing infant baptism, welcome us into God's family as spotless lambs, wiping away the stain of original sin and certainly not guilty of any other sin thereof. The graces are not something that need be won by OUR faith, but as Jesus healed the paralytic because of the faith of those who surrounded him, we are welcomed into the family of God by the faith of our loved ones who bring us to the sacrament for blessing.
To imply that being born of God requires a conscious decision to "accept Jesus Christ" as our Savior would seem to leave out the mentally handicapped who cannot make decisions for themselves and must rely ON THE FAITH OF THOSE AROUND THEM. To demand that one must be born of God by fiat implies that God loves not the imbecile, but only the learned who can rationalize their faith.
I don't believe that being "born of God" requires anything on our part. That includes making a "conscious decision to accept Jesus Christ" OR a "cooperating" decision to be baptized into the Church. These are works and man can do nothing that pleases God prior to being born again.
Being born of God is God's act alone. God gives His elect a "new heart and spirit" as stated in Ezekial 36 solely based upon His grace and His grace alone.