After four coats of the General Finishes gel stain, the rocker looked good. Put on one coat of top coat polyurethane from General Finishes. Wanted to put on a couple more coats of poly since I figured it would get a lot of use and abuse from my granddaughter. Read where needed to sand between coats. Lightly used a 220 sponge, especially where there were two drip marks (where the heck did they come from - looked it over good). Unfortunately, the sanding scratched through some of the stain. Since this process to this point took SO long, and my time was and is running short to give to my daughter who's coming in a few days, I tried touching up scratched through areas with touch up markers first on the bottom where wouldn't see, and it didn't match well. Then tried using a thin artist brush to touch up with the gel stain itself on scratches, and it was hard to cover, but I did eventually, and today, 24 hours later, those areas (5-10) stick out like a sore thumb (see pic). Not sure if another day or two will make things better or not since it says to let dry 3 days with the gel stain.

A few questions:

1. IF the best thing to do at this point is to sand off the poly and put down another coat of gel stain, what grit would you suggest to get the poly off (one coat poly)? Or do I have to get down to bare wood again?

2. When I get to the point where I want to put the top coat poly on again, how many coats would be good to protect for kid use? I believe on the label it said you can put a second coat on within 6 hours without sanding. If I do the bottom, wait 3 hours, then top, wait 3 hours, then bottom, wait 3 hours and top, wait 3 hours and bottom, wait 3 hours and top, since there is no more than 6 hours between coats in same area, would that work without sanding?

3. Any other suggestions on how to save this project. My daughter will be here on Thursday and leave on Monday, so I don't have a lot of time to start fully over. 4 coats, top and bottom, 3 days (or more) dry time: 4 X 2 X 3 = 24+ days. Just for the gel stain.

I understand there may have been better ways to do this. It is what it is. Please let me know what I can do from here.

Thank you!