Home made loops don't come out like they were when stored in loop lib

I'm trying to store a mono recorded audio acoustic rhythm guitar. chord pattern in a 4 bar loop.

1) I record to a mono track and normalize to loudness = (-23) I note in region inspector "gain" is set to + ( some number, say 4.5)

2) Bounce to new track to try to 'burn in" volume gain. I note that in new track/bounced region visible and audible gain has increased, but now there's NO numbers in "gain" field, indicating gain is "burned in" I think.

2) store in loop library as no key

3) Drag back into track of origin.

PROBLEMS

a) The dragged-in loop is stereo, not mono like the file of origin AFAIK

b) The volume is not as high as the target volume I've thought I'd burnt in.

The content seems OK as far as sound quality but if I have to bounce and normalize again it defeats the whole efficiency of loops.

Thanks for input.

a) When bouncing in 2), was that last track also mono?

b) Have you tried not using Normalization when bouncing?

Atlas.

Thanks for input. Please see the photo, the LEFT green region is the normalized region I export to loop library. Then the RIGHT one which appears to be stereo is what

I get when I drag the created loop from the library to the track. You can see the volume looks lower, and it is stereo instead of mono. DOn't know what I'm doing wrong.

a) Yes I believe so, the new track has the single circle marker and does not have two "stripes" representing sound in the region. AFAIK what is getting exported to the loop library is mono.

b) Tried not normalizing, but the volume change seems to -- like with the conversion to stereo loops--

happen after the sound is in the library. the pre-library version retains correct volume, something happens when it's put into loop library and pulled back out -- 1) Volume is lower 2) Loop is in stereo whereas what I exported to it was in mono ( as far as I know, I could be missing something.)