def unstack_and_count(da, dims):
    """ Unstacks provided xarray object and returns the total number of elements along dims """
    
    try:
        unstacked = da.unstack(da.dims[0])
    except ValueError:
        unstacked = da

    if dims is None:
        return ((0 * unstacked) + 1)
    else:
        return ((0 * unstacked) + 1).sum(dim=dims, skipna=True)