I can post via the rest api successfully and I get a node created in the expected place, using the payload below:

{
"templateId": 1048,
"contentTypeAlias": "myContentAlias",
"parentId": 1073,
"name" : "test post"
}

but not sure how to publish it immediately?

Basically looking for the equivalent of SaveAndPublish or just Publish methods in Content Service. If I can't do it this way then I guess I'd have to create my own ApiController to handle it, but I'm sure I'll run into difficulties that way as well knowing my luck