The bike should shift from the middle to the granny within 1/4 of a pedal turn. Something is wrong. Either your cadence is to low and pedal pressure to high, or something is wrong with the front derailleur, like the return spring is weak.
As for the transition from down hill to up, I would suggest going down the hill as fast as you can in as big a gear as possible, then shift across the cassette for easier gears keeping a high cadence while in the big ring as you loose momentum, than a clean double shift to the middle ring and back up the cassette 1-2 cogs, all the while keeping a high cadence. Then when you are in the middle ring and the 1st or 2nd largest cog in the back and loosing speed, make another clean double shift onto the granny and back up the cassette 1-2 cogs and climb the hill.
This is assuming the hill is to long to just stand up and sprint over.