Adjusting and bleeding have very little to do with each other- what happened originally is that when you pumped the peddle a couple of times you kept expanding the brake shoes until they matched the drums, you didn't give them time to retract between pumps (they actually retract pretty slowly). Then when you tried them again they HAD retracted and you had to start over. Now they only retract enough to release the pressure but don't retract so far from the drums that you need to multi-pump them to get contact. (Is that understandable?)
BillM