Question

Should the second helping verb (had) be omitted from the following sentence: "After a few weeks, Rosemary had not only abandoned all thoughts of suicide but had also begun to accept the inevitable with serenity and dignity." Also, would you omit the second "had" from this sentence? "Once he'd punched in its number on the keypad of the unaltered phone and had depressed its transmit button, it would send an 850 megahertz radio wave signal to the nearest cellular communications tower." Removing the second had from the above sentences causes them to sound funny to me.