For a couple of years, we used a baby monitor on an iPad in the baby room. We never used IR illumination, instead we just waited until we got a notification on our phone, then watched the video. It was never utterly dark in the baby's room, but you can also remotely turn on the iPad LED light.

Thats really interesting, yeah I think that audio alone can be helpful. The notification though is actually really important now that you mention it I will see if I can add that in the next update!