Iterative Deepening using recursion bug

Question

This is iterative deepening search and I want to keep track of the nodes generated before the goal state. I am using RUNNING_TIME as a counter and then assign it to each node in the tree. The thing is, because o recursion RUNNING_TIME is incremented more than once and the value is not valid anymore. Hence, I get a RUNNING_TIME for BFS which is better than this one which theoretically doesn't make sense (only worst case scenario). Do you have any idea how I should increment this value in my methods? I sincerely have no idea, thanks.

public void IDS() {
    Grid startNode = new Grid(initState, A, B, C, agent);

    for(int depth = 0; depth < Integer.MAX_VALUE; depth ++) {
        Grid found = DLS(startNode, depth);

        if(found != null) {
            retracePath(found);
            return;
        }
    }
}

public Grid DLS(Grid current, int depth) {
    RUNNING_TIME ++;
    current.nodesGeneratedBefore = RUNNING_TIME;
    if(depth == 0 && current.checkGoalState()) {
        return current;
    }
    if(depth > 0) {
        for(Grid neighbor : current.getNeighbors(current)) {

            Grid found = DLS(neighbor, depth - 1);
            if(found != null) {
                return found;
            }
        }
    }

    return null;
}

EDIT: Also I forgot to mention that I get the correct path to the destination, but only the "RUNNING_TIME" variable is wrongly incremented.

0 0 0 0 
0 0 0 0 
0 0 0 -1 
1 2 3 0 
Number of nodes generated by now 4680622

0 0 0 0 
0 0 0 0 
0 0 -1 0 
1 2 3 0 
Number of nodes generated by now 6297726

0 0 0 0 
0 0 0 0 
0 -1 0 0 
1 2 3 0 
Number of nodes generated by now 7106272

0 0 0 0 
0 0 0 0 
0 2 0 0 
1 -1 3 0 
Number of nodes generated by now 7760396

0 0 0 0 
0 0 0 0 
0 2 0 0 
-1 1 3 0 
Number of nodes generated by now 7837602

0 0 0 0 
0 0 0 0 
-1 2 0 0 
0 1 3 0 
Number of nodes generated by now 7837603

0 0 0 0 
0 0 0 0 
2 -1 0 0 
0 1 3 0 
Number of nodes generated by now 7842162

0 0 0 0 
0 0 0 0 
2 1 0 0 
0 -1 3 0 
Number of nodes generated by now 7848122

0 0 0 0 
0 0 0 0 
2 1 0 0 
0 3 -1 0 
Number of nodes generated by now 7849095

0 0 0 0 
0 0 0 0 
2 1 -1 0 
0 3 0 0 
Number of nodes generated by now 7849096

0 0 0 0 
0 0 -1 0 
2 1 0 0 
0 3 0 0 
Number of nodes generated by now 7849097

0 0 0 0 
0 -1 0 0 
2 1 0 0 
0 3 0 0 
Number of nodes generated by now 7849111

0 0 0 0 
0 1 0 0 
2 -1 0 0 
0 3 0 0 
Number of nodes generated by now 7849125

0 0 0 0 
0 1 0 0 
-1 2 0 0 
0 3 0 0 
Number of nodes generated by now 7849127