Cannot seem to keep an object how it was when reloading a level (Unity2D)

I have a spritesheet with 3 hearts that sometimes go down to 2, 1 ,etc... to show to lives a player has. However, I'm trying to keep the gameObject how it is if a level reloads (i.e: if the player has 2 heart, keep it that way when reloading the level)

Here's the code of my LifeManager.cs

 public class LifeManager : MonoBehaviour {
 private  int currentIndex = 0;
 public Sprite[] lifeSprites;
 static LifeManager instance = null;
 // Use this for initialization

 void Awake()
 {
     if (instance != null)
     {
         Debug.Log("Destryoing" + instance);
         Destroy(gameObject);

     }
     else
     {
         Debug.Log(instance);
         instance = this;
         GameObject.DontDestroyOnLoad(gameObject);
        
     }
     DontDestroyOnLoad(this.gameObject);

 }


 public void loadSprites(string life)
 {
     if (string.Equals(life, "down"))
     {
         if(currentIndex > 2)
         {
             //Do nothing
         }
         else if(currentIndex < 2){
             this.GetComponent<SpriteRenderer>().sprite = lifeSprites[currentIndex + 1];
             currentIndex += 1;
         }
     }
     if (string.Equals(life, "up"))
     {

         if (currentIndex < 0)
         {
             //Do nothing
         }
         else if (currentIndex > 0)
         {
             this.GetComponent<SpriteRenderer>().sprite = lifeSprites[currentIndex - 1];
             currentIndex -= 1;
         }
     }
 }
 public int getIndex()
 {
     return currentIndex;
 }

}