It's actually not harder to do at all. Only time it'd be harder is if you're trying to bench-press the trans back into place, in which case you're having a bear of a time as it is that anything you can do to help is huge. You'd already be removing the crossmember at that point to help.
As far as the axle seals go, replace them. Better to do it while you're there now rather than having to remove axles all over again a month or 2 down the road to replace old ones. It's cheap, easy, and there's no reason not to do it at this point, unless that $5 is going to break the bank.
And fyi I'm trying to give my experienced advice to help him, not start a pissing match. I don't need to remove a transmission a certain number of times to know what I'm talking about.