I agree with the previous post, check your shop out and go to a reputable shop. My buddy did my gears at his shop, he does alot of classic muscle cars and drag racing. Took him 2 days that was front, rear gears, ball joints,C-gussets, sleeves, lower control arm skids, and alignment.

As for break in, every shop is different, he has been doing rears for over 20 years. He says break them in like your gonna drive them. Then do a fluid change after the first 1000 miles. Alot of people say you have to heat them up, cool them down, blah blah blah. He says...your never creating enough heat in that rear to heat treat the metal. But I guess alot of it is opinion. I drove my mine normally, did a fluid change after a 1000 miles and all is good so far.

Regearing does lead to other things...perfect time to beef your front axle, do ball joints, etc while it is apart.

 

I know this doesn't help you since you are no where close to the shop, but just as a reference for what a quality shop can do, Northridge 4x4 did my gear install both axles in 8 hours while I waited in their waiting room watching movies and playing xbox. They are very meticulous and took their time to do it right. It was also nice to be able to go out to the shop and watch their progress and see them work every once in a while.

Oh, and with in that same 8 hrs they installed an mbrp exhaust and some other doo-dads that I couldn't resist while checking out their inventory

 

If I were rich enough, I would ship my Jeep from Georgia to Washington just for Northridge4x4 to do the regear.