Great expectations

I've been thinking about to all the advice people gave me before LB was born last year. Most of it was along the lines of, 'you'll never sleep well again', 'forget having a social life', etc and I was disappointed by how negative so many people were about something I was so excited about. How can they worry about that, I thought, when my wonderful little baby is going to be born?
The thing is, while some of what they said is true (it is hard to go to parties and things at night) the things I found hardest were never even mentioned. For instance, I found it difficult to go from a busy job where I accomplished loads and met deadlines to a fairly monotonous routine of baby-wrangling. I also, and still do, find being at home with LB lonely sometimes.
I was reading today at Celebrity Babies that Julia Roberts is finding mothering twins difficult. She's surprised how tired she is and how ravaged she feels her looks and body have been by the whole thing. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to have twins! I guess she'd have a nanny (I've heard some celebs have three, one for weekdays, one for weeknights, and one for weekends) but it takes a lot longer than people think to emotionally and physically recover from giving birth.
I wonder if a lot of it comes from the expectations we have? I know I used to think LB should sleep a certain amount, breastfeed perfectly and that I would be filled with a motherly glow (yes, I have a pretty romantic view of life!). Of course, things didn't turn out that way, although LB is a great baby to look after. I wonder if I have another baby whether I will be more relaxed? Whether it's a personality thing or just a first time mother thing? The problem is that it's so contradictory. I loved every minute but found it really hard, too. But isn't that how we would find any great challenging job? I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised at all!